BACKPACKING -- Two Gonzaga University students vacationing in May near Grand Canyon National Park Gonzaga played key roles in saving a man's life.

According to a story from the GU News Service, nursing student Maggie Clark and accounting student Julia Biemann saved a man from drowning after they'd hike in 11 miles to Havasu Campground.

The man had been swimming in whirlpools churning beneath 200-foot Mooney Falls on Havasu Creek, a Colorado River tributary in the Grand Canyon some 120 miles northwest of Flagstaff.  The vortex caused by the falling water apparrently suck him back toward the falls where the currents forced him underwater for several minutes.

The story explains how a nursing student put her skills to work and how an accounting student with climbing skills honed in GU classes gave the story a happy ending.