CCS SWIMMING: His future looks even better

Peter Osborn's shot at Central Coast Section glory lasted about a minute on Saturday, but the Palo Alto High swimmer should have a better time of it next season.

Osborn turned in an excellent showing at the CCS swimming and diving championships at Stanford's deGuerre Pool, and the Viking junior is anticipating the graduation of top CCS seniors Tim Dietrich (Wilcox) and Dave Gaggero (Bellarmine). The departure of those two stars could pave the way for Osborn's rise to the top in both the 200-yard individual medley and the 100 butterfly.

Dietrich and Gaggero were Osborn's nemeses on Saturday. In the 200 IM, Osborn led for the initial 100 yards, on the butterfly and backstroke portions of the race. However, he lost ground on the breaststroke (third) leg and eventually finished second with a season-best time of 1:53.78. Dietrich won in 1:53.17.

"Breaststroke is a weakness of mine," Osborn said. "I tried to take it out fast and hope I wouldn't lose much ground on the breaststroke. Those other guys (including Dietrich) are all flyers and breaststrokers."

In the 100 fly, Osborn finished third (a season-best 52.06) behind Gaggero (51.25) and Dietrich (51.35).

"Those were good races," said Osborn, who added that he was pleased with his effort. "Dave Gaggero and Tim Dietrich are the best swimmers in the area."

Osborn said he achieved his best times in both the IM and the fly, though he said he was hoping to swim a 51.00 in the fly.

With Gaggero and Dietrich now finished as high school swimmers, the mantle of "favored" now rests on Osborn's shoulders in the IM and the fly. Two things may stand in the way for the Viking--his love for water polo and Bellarmine freshman Rob Canales, who finished third in the IM, a scant .64 behind Osborn.

"There are a lot of young guys out there who work hard," Osborn said. "I'm going to have to stay in top shape to beat them."

Osborn is also undecided whether to concentrate on swimming or polo next year. He has no official way of knowing if he's got a legitimate chance at receiving a college scholarship--college coaches and the like are barred from contacting high school athletes in their junior year--but he said he thinks he's got a shot if he dedicates himself.

Palo Alto, which finished a distant 13th (far behind champion Bellarmine), suffered a setback when a Viking swimmer left too soon and disqualified the 200 medley relay. And senior Chet Loy, who had the top qualifying time of 53.85 in the 100 back trials, had a bad final turn in Saturday's championship and dropped from first to fifth (54.12).

Gunn senior Teague Soderman finished fourth in the 100 free (47.86), fifth in the 50 free (22.18) and anchored the Titans' fourth-place 200 free relay (1:29.94) and seventh-place 400 free relay.

Menlo-Atherton junior diver Marck Tiegel provided one of the more interesting stories of the meet. Nine months ago to the day he began diving for the first time, he finished third (330.80), behind Silver Creek's Mark Wallwork (424.90) and Carmel's Mike Allaire (346.75) on the one-meter board.

"I'm blown away, knocked out of my socks," said a stunned Tiegel after hearing he had finished third. "Just qualifying for the finals was amazing. My coaches (John Todd and Derek Austin) were keys. I didn't know what I was doing nine months ago."

Todd, Paly's head diving coach, called Tiegel's performance "incredible. He showed so much poise. It's his first real meet with real competition."

Tiegel had dived unattached with Palo Alto High twice, and finished second unofficially at the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League meet. "He's so dedicated," Todd added. "He can go as far as he wants." 

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