SCOTTSDALE, AZ —Nearly two years after saving the lives of two drowning swimmers in San Diego, two local high school students have received North America’s highest honor for civilian heroism.
Zach Haugen, a Phoenix resident who is a senior at Chaparral High School in Scottsdale, and his best friend Jake Watson, a Phoenix resident and senior at Scottsdale’s Desert Mountain High School, recently were awarded the Carnegie Medal, which is handed out throughout the U.S and Canada to “those who enter extreme danger while saving or attempting to save the lives of others.”
The duo was among 18 Americans who received the honor when the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission handed out its first awards of 2022. Six of the medals were awarded posthumously.
The winners receive a medal and a monetary grant.
“What it means to be a hero is to know what the right thing to do is, and have the guts to do it,” Haugen, 18, told Patch.
On July 3, 2020, Haugen, then 16, and Watson, then 15, were in California on vacation and walking along Sunset Cliffs in San Diego, when they noticed an 11-year-old girl and an 18-year-old young woman —who they later learned had suffered a head injury — in distress in the water below.
Haugen, a certified lifeguard who has gone on to be a state scorer on the Chaparral High swim team, jumped 20 feet from the cliffs and into the ocean to help.
According to the Carnegie Medal website, Haugen then swam to the pair and, while grasping the young girl and guiding the young woman, he swam toward a low-lying part of the cliff where they could exit the water.
“Right when that happened, a huge wave came up and cleared me to the back of the cove,” Haugen told the Arizona Republic last year. “That’s when (Watson) who was with me asked, ‘Should I come down?’ I shook my head yes.”
According to the Carnegie Medal website, Watson then entered the water and swam to the pair.
“Placing the (11-year-old) girl on his back, (Watson) then helped the (18-year-old young woman) to a ledge and pushed the young girl on it,” according to the website. “Exiting the water himself, (Watson) was unable to pull the (18-year-old) from the water. But he held onto her, keeping her head above the surface of the water until lifeguards arrived by boat.”
Russell Krzyzanowksi, the boys swimming head coach at Chaparral High School, told Patch this week that he was not surprised that Haugen rose to the occasion when he was needed most.
“Zach saw a moment in his life where his immediate reaction had his name written all over it, and that is what Zach is all about,” Krzyzanowski said. “He commits himself and is going to conquer anything in his way. No matter how tough the moment was, he made an act of courage that many would shy away from.
“Zach is a different breed and he is built by courage, respect and caring for others.”
Haugen said he will be heading to Northern Arizona University next year to major in forestry, while Watson, 17, is off to Scottsdale Community College.
Wherever they go, Haugen and Watson will go as heroes.
“(The Carnegie Medal) is said to be the highest honor award a civilian can achieve, so it means a great deal to not just me, but also my family,” Watson told Patch.