A University of Arizona student drowned Monday while tubing with friends in an area south of Yosemite National Park in California.
Stephanie Marie Coyle, 20, of Tucson was pulled underwater at around 2:25 p.m., Madera County Sheriff’s spokeswoman Erica Stuart said.
One male companion received minor injuries after he jumped in after Coyle. He was thrown into boulders by the rapids but was able to get out safely.
The body of Coyle — a public management and policy major and sports management major, according to the UA phonebook — was found shortly after 6 p.m. by a water-rescue team from Yosemite Search and Rescue that was called in to help the search.
Stuart said it was unclear whether the tubers had gotten out of the water to walk around the rapids and Coyle fell into the creek, or if the tubers had been caught up in rapids before they could get out. She added that in the mountainous terrain of the Mammoth Pool Reservoir, located Northeast of North Fork, Calif., calm water can quickly turn into rapids that form chutes through boulders.
A Santa Maria, Calif., man drowned in a similar creek along the Mammoth Pool Reservoir less than a month ago while trying to rescue his dog from the water, Stuart said.