Swimmers David Breitenbach and Simon O'Connell and Saratoga water polo coach Steve Sherry of Sunnyvale competed in the fourth annual Alcatraz Sharkfest Swim on Memorial Day.
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 seen like it in some water polo games.
But Steve Sherry of Sunnyvale and David Breitenbach and Simon O'Connell of Saratoga 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 they 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.
This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, June 12, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.