Two University of Wisconsin students drowned in the Adirondack Mountains Aug. 12 after swimming in a river outside of Elizabethtown, N.Y.

David Altschuler, 18, an incoming freshman from Philadelphia, and Adam Cohen, 19, a returning student from Long Island, N.Y., drowned along with two friends and fellow camp counselors at Split Rock Falls on the Boquet River.

The four counselors from Camp Baco in Minerva, N.Y., were spending their day off with 17 other camp counselors at the popular swimming hole.

Altschuler slipped on a rock and fell in the water near a swimming hole and was pulled underwater by the current. Cohen, a swimmer on his high school swim team, and two other camp counselors not affiliated with UW, Jonah Richman and Jordan Satin, instinctively jumped in the water to save him. They were also pulled underwater and drowned.

New York State police investigator Michael Doyle said the spot was a popular swimming area about 30 miles away from the boys’ camp.

“It’s a small river in a gorge-type area,” Doyle said. “There’s quite a few falls on that part of the Boquet River.”

Police divers and forest rangers recovered the bodies from the river Aug. 12.

“Our most sincere condolences are with the families in the times of this extreme tragedy,” UW spokesman John Lucas said.

“We are deeply saddened by the loss of two members of our campus community,” Dean of Students Luoluo Hong said. “That they died trying to save the life of another only makes the loss that much more tragic. Our thoughts and condolences are with their families and friends at this time.”

Tragically ironic, Adam Cohen’s senior quote in his yearbook was from the Phish song “Theme From the Bottom”: “Toss the stuff you don’t need in the end, but keep what’s important and know who’s your friend.”