Princeton Swimmer Drowns Off Deerfield Beach

DEERFIELD BEACH, Fla.- A member of the Princeton University swim team drowned in the ocean off South Florida, officials said Saturday. Alan Ebersole, 20, of Vicksburg, Miss., was found early Saturday in the in the shallow surf about three-quarters of a mile from where he was last seen in the water, according to the Broward County Sheriff's Office. Ebersole had a broken neck, but the Broward Medical Examiner said the cause of his death was drowning. Detectives found no signs of foul play and no indication of drugs or alcohol. "It must have been dark," Ebersole's aunt, Lauri Collins, told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. "It was almost midnight. He dove into a wave that was shallow and he must have hit his head on a rock or the bottom." Ebersole was staying with teammates in Deerfield Beach during a training trip coinciding with the school's fall break. He and two friends went swimming in the ocean late Friday near their hotel. His friends came ashore and thought Ebersole had already returned to his room, deputies said. But when they noticed his clothes on the beach, they summoned a coach and other swimmers to begin a search. Ebersole was a former Mississippi state high school champion swimmer. He also won the U.S. Achievement National Mathematics Award and was the United Way male teen volunteer of the year, the newspaper reported.

(AP article here)