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15-year-old dies while swimming at Applegate Lake Third water death in county this week APPLEGATE � A skip-day swimming trip to Applegate Lake ended tragically for a 15-year-old boy Friday morning. Mario Sauceva, a sophomore at Crater High School, drowned shortly after 10 a.m. while trying to swim to a floating platform at Hart-Tish Park, according to the Jackson County Sheriff�s Department. Authorities said Sauceva and another boy were swimming toward the platform, which is about 50 yards from the shore, when Sauceva began yelling for help and went underwater. He was about halfway to the platform. The other boy, who was nearly to the platform, swam to help, as did friends from the shore. "As soon as they realized the young man was in trouble, they swam out to help," said U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Mary Marrs. "It happened very quickly. They really don�t know how long he was underwater but they didn�t feel like it was very long." The teens were assisted by concession stand workers, as well as Forest Service and emergency personnel who arrived by helicopter, but were unable to save him. The other swimmer and others at the lake told authorities the water was cold and rough, driven by windy conditions. "It was kind of a rough swim," Marrs said. "It was cold and the wind was blowing water in their faces." The group of teens had taken the day off from school Friday to go swimming at the lake, Marrs said. The drowning was the first in recent memory at the reservoir, authorities said. It was also the third water-related fatality in Jackson County in the past week. A 17-year-old Sams Valley boy named Larry Duane Perigo drowned last Saturday at Willow Lake after apparently suffering an asthma attack. On Thursday, a 71-year-old California woman named Vera Marie Chaloupka died at Barr Falls after falling 100 to 150 feet into the Rogue River. Obituaries | Sports | Business | Classifieds | Tempo | Prime Times | So Oregon Sites | Outdoor Journal | Subscribe | Contact | Movies | Advertise | Real Estate Showcase | Archive | Editorials | Letters to the editor | Religion | Wake-up Call | NIE | Cyber Chef | Job Network | So Oregon Weather | WSJ Northwest | Forums | AP Wire | AP Money | F.A.Q. | Awards Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. The Community Newspaper Subsidiary of Dow Jones & Co, Inc Copyright �The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA