Full Story Practice 2

Renee Farmer
1 min readOct 30, 2019

One Springfield University student is dead and one is hospitalized following a boating accident off Daytona Beach and a six hour swim back to shore.

Randy Cohen, Christy Wapinarski, Daniel Perrin, and Tammy Ennis, all sophomores at Springfield University, were sailing Friday when their boat sprung a leak at 5 p.m. and capsized. After spending the night clinging to debris, the four decided to swim back to shore.

Sharks attacked Christy Wapinarski, 19, and she called for help. Randy Cohen, 19, swam back to her and found her unconscious. He put his arms around her shoulders and swam with her, as recalled by Cohen in a phone interview.

Daniel Perrin, 20, took Wapinarski’s pulse and determined that she was dead. Cohen held onto her body for another 15 to 20 minutes of their swim before letting her go. He was later stung by dozens of Portuguese man-of-wars and admitted to Halifax Hospital in Daytona when he reached the shore.

Perrin and Tammy Ennis, 20, were also examined at the hospital but released.

Who: Four Springfield university students

What: are capsized in the water and have to swim back to shore while losing a friend to a shark attack

Where: water off Daytona Beach

When: Friday, 5 p.m.

Lead: 26 words

Notes: possible shark attack, friend pronounced her dead, missing and presumed dead, can’t just take 1 persons testimony, lots of attribution, no life jackets, explain what man-of-war are/he said, how long missing b4 declared dead

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Renee Farmer

Journalism and biology student. Aspiring avian ecologist.