Gurnee lifeguards get top honors

The lifeguards who work at Six Flags Great America's Hurricane Harbor proudly claim they work at the best water park in the nation and are the best at their jobs.

Now, they have gold medals to back up those claims.

Four lifeguards at Gurnee water park took home top honors, including the top team award, against competition from across the country at the Ellis and Associates Lifeguard Challenge.

Representing Six Flags were Kim Keefe of Antioch, Rydean Dart of Kenosha, Wis., Claire Bitto of Antioch and Mike Godlewski of Lindenhurst.

Ellis and Associates is a national pool and water park safety program. Bitto said the company makes sure lifeguards at each facility perform at the same level.

All four volunteered to join the competition and underwent 6 weeks of training to prepare.

"It's an opportunity to better my skills and show we have the best lifeguards in the world," Godlewski said.

They competed for the second year on home turf, but Keefe pointed out for the two large-scale scenarios and rescue relay, they had no idea where in the water park they would work and what the scenario would entail.

They also had the challenge of working two events with people they did not know. In the first scenario, each lifeguard was matched with three lifeguards from other facilities. The task was to get all four lifeguards to the top of the Tornado to care for three victims injured after a PVC pipe burst. Keefe recalled the pipe was set up in a spot where a hose sprayed water in their faces through the entire rescue.

"It got every guards' adrenaline pumping," she said.

The second scenario began at Skull Island, where two teammates were paired with two from another water park to rescue an unconscious child from the water.

In the rescue relay, all four worked in the wave pool to rescue an adult drowning at the surface, an unconscious adult and a baby at the bottom of the pool.

Each event, Godlewski said, tested their training and reaction.

"Our training is so repetitive. It's driven into our heads," he said. "We constantly practice. I didn't have time to think. I just acted."

The team did not learn their results until a banquet a few days after the competition. Bitto, Dart and Keefe took first through third respectively in the first scenario, and Bitto and Godlewski took first in the second scenario. The team also took first in the rescue relay.

"Coming into this we wanted to win everything," Bitto said. "We won everything. It felt like a goal completed."