Petaluma teen swimmer ‘escapes' from Alcatraz

After fog had thwarted his first attempt, Petaluma teenager Tom Franicevich managed to “escape” from Alcatraz in impressive fashion last month.

The 14-year-old high school sophomore was the third fastest overall to swim from the island to Aquatic Park in the swim-only portion of the annual Escape from the Rock triathlon.

Franicevich's time of 30:41.5 was third behind 28-year-old Redd Gallogly of San Jose (28:23.8) and 40-year-old Zack Rogers of San Francisco (29:03.2).

What made Franicevich's achievement even more remarkable was that it came less than three years after a month and a half stay in the hospital for treatment of a rare liver disease that has already cost him his gallbladder and may some day force him to have a liver transplant.

For now, he is feeling fine with the help of medication, and rapidly making up for the time he lost in his swimming progress, caused by his illness.

When the original event was canceled by heavy fog, Franicevich was doubly disappointed. Not only did he have to confine his first ocean swim to the area around Aquatic Park, but it also meant he couldn't fulfill his part of a bargain made with sponsors who pledged money for the American Liver Foundation based on his Alcatraz Swim.

Two weeks later, he got a second chance.

Despite his strong performance and fast time, the swim wasn't easy.

“You can really feel the current,” he explained. “I never really had a strategy. I just looked where I was going and swam my heart out.

“When you first get in, the shock is pretty substantial. I was wearing a wet suit, but it doesn't really cover everything. It was pretty cold on my arms, feet and face. When I got out, I couldn't stand up. I felt like I was about to fall over.”

At that, Franicevich was better off than most. “Only 23 made the entrance to the cove before the current really came up,” he explained. “I was really happy to make it in before there was a really strong current. I just aimed left of the cove and it worked out for me.”

He said boats and canoes were kept busy helping the slower swimmers reach the cove as they battled the increasing current.

Sharks were never an issue for the young swimmer, although he admits to one startling moment.

“I didn't really think about sharks too much,” he said. “They never really worried me. I did get a surprise when a seal swam about 10 feet under me. That sped me up a little bit.”

The Alcatraz swim was Franicevich's first real experience with ocean swimming. “I've swum in Lake Berryessa, but swimming in a lake and swimming in the ocean are very different.”

Franicevich has just complete his first year of competition for the Petaluma High swim team, and is looking forward to a successful high school career.

“My goal is to make the North Coast Section meet in an individual event,” he says. “I went last year as part of a relay team, but everyone but me was a senior. Now, I would like to make it in an individual event.”

His best events are freestyle and butterfly.

A member of the Westside Aquaducks club team, he says another one of his goals is to make it to section competition.

Franicevich is both realistic and optimistic, understanding that he is fortunate to be doing something he loves.

“I'm alive and very grateful and lucky I can swim at all,” he says.

It was in the summer after his seventh-grade year in junior high school that he began having what he believed was stomach trouble.

“It was the worst pain I've ever had in my life,” he recalls. And, it was something much more serious than a stomach ache.

“I can't pronounce it,” he says of his disease, “but it is really serious. I had my gallbladder removed and spent a month and a half in the hospital.”

Today, his rare kidney disease is treated by medication, but in the future, he may need more intense treatment.

“At some point, I may need a liver transplant,” he said. “It doesn't really worry me. There is no point in worrying until you have to.”

His health problems have made him very aware of the need for research into the causes and cures for liver diseases. It was one of the reasons the Alcatraz Swim was so important to him.

He raised $1,600 by accepting and meeting the challenge.

Swimming is one of two passions in Franicevich's young life. The other is music. He plays the guitar, piano, base and ukulele and plays at his church. “I love music he says. “I love to hang out and jam with my friends.”

He carries a 3.89 grade point average in independent studies at Valley Oaks High School. Franicevich is the son of Bob and Camille Franicevich.

His older brother, Jack, graduated from Petaluma High this spring.