Two high schoolers save man’s life at Spanish Fork cross-country meet

SPANISH FORK, Utah ( ABC4 ) — Two high schoolers saved a man’s life over the weekend at a Spanish Fork cross-country meet after he was found unconscious and without a pulse on the ground, according to the Nebo School District .

PJ Merrill and Traven Elquist — both juniors at Spanish Fork High (SFHS) — were at a cross-country meet on Saturday when they heard a “commotion” and saw students from another school “waving and shouting,” the district’s post read . The two teenagers ran to the scene and found an unresponsive man on the ground.

District officials said the man was an SFHS student’s father and was starting to turn blue as he had no pulse and was not breathing. Elquist immediately called 911 and Merrill began CPR —which he had learned in class the previous year.

“After several tense minutes, the man took a sharp breath and began breathing again,” the post read.

Elquist directed first responders to the scene over the phone, and the man was transported to the hospital where he received surgery and is now in recovery.

“Merrill and Elquist’s quick actions and the CPR training they received last school year in the class of Rory Eyring, at Spanish Fork High School, undoubtedly saved the man’s life, making them true heroes in their community,” the post read.

Merrill and Elquist described the incident as “weird” and “scary,” saying they were “on autopilot and muscle memory took over.” However, after the athletic trainers took over the situation they said they were hit with a wave of emotions.

“Sometimes boys will daydream about having a ‘heroic’ moment in their head, and wish it could happen … but you DO NOT want it,” they wrote in a joint statement to ABC4.

They continued to say that while ‘saving the day’ sounds great, those situations are “so much more than that.”

“It is a Life or Death situation. Luckily the outcome was Life but if anything was different, it could very well have been Death,” they wrote.

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