By Dick Sparrer
It's not too dangerous in the waters of the Saratoga swimming and water polo pools.
It's not very cold... in fact, the water is heated. There isn't a very strong current... actually, the water is quite still. And there aren't any sharks lurking below... even if it may seem like it in some water polo games.
But David Breitenbach and Simon O'Connell of Saratoga and Steve Sherry of Sunnyvale faced all of those conditions and more when they competed in the fourth annual Alcatraz Sharkfest Swim on Memorial Day.
Breitenbach and O'Connell are swimmers and water polo players at Saratoga, and Sherry is the school's water polo coach. But all three were competitors on Memorial Day when made the 1.5-mile swim from Alcatraz to Aquatic Park.
They were three of the 517 swimmers who escaped from "The Rock" by diving into the cold, shark-infested waters of the San Francisco Bay, battling the strong current to reach the shore.
Breitenbach, a Saratoga sophomore, finished 32nd in the 500-plus swimmer field, clocking in at 34.l5. Sherry was 39th in 34.38 and O'Connell, a junior at Saratoga, was 93rd in 38.20. The winning time was 28.19.
All but seven of the swimmers who started the open water swim finished the race that was sponsored by Enviro Sports of Stinson Beach.
Breitenbach and O'Connell will return to the warmer, calmer [and safer] Saratoga waters in the fall to lead the Falcons into another water polo season, and they figure to be two of Saratoga's top swimmers next spring.
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, June 12, 1996.
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