The Free Press, Mankato, MN

Jim Rueda

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October 29, 2008

MSU wrestlers get a surprise while duck hunting

By Jim Rueda

Minnesota State University senior Cory Harnitz says it was simply a case of being in the right place at the right time. Jason Rhoten, a graduate student at MSU, agrees.

“Basically, that’s what happened,” Harnitz said. “At first, we weren’t going to go hunting, but then we decided to go out and, in the end, we found somebody that was lost.”

Harnitz is a Mankato native who competes for the MSU wrestling team. Rhoten won a national wrestling championship for the Mavericks last season and is now on the coaching staff.

The two have hunted together on and off since Harnitz joined the team five years ago. On Tuesday morning, they talked about going pheasant hunting and then decided against it. At the last minute, Harnitz suggested duck hunting and the two decided to give it a shot.

They initially went to one of their favorite spots but that was already being hunted, so they switched to Middle Lake near Nicollet. Around 9:30 a.m., Harnitz and Rhoten thought they heard someone yelling but couldn’t make out what was being said and figured it was just a pheasant hunter calling his dog.

About half an hour later, they heard the yells again and this time were able to determine it was somebody calling for help. About that time, a rescue helicopter flew overhead and the two MSU students put two and two together went to lend their assistance.

Harnitz turned his white-lined jacket inside out, stuck it to a long pole, and tried to wave down the copter. Meanwhile, Rhoten steered their boat in the direction of the yells and they quickly came upon a distressed Joshua Olsen who was stuck in some swampy, marsh land loaded with cattails.

“He would have been difficult to find if he hadn’t been calling because those cattails were pretty thick,” Harnitz said. “Jason got out and was able to put him in the boat.”

Olsen had lost his shoes in the muddy water and was disoriented. They quickly drove to shore as close to the helicopter as they could and the paramedics took over.

“While we were driving toward shore we took his socks off and wrapped our jackets around his feet because they had to be cold,” Rhoten said. “We wanted to try to prevent frostbite if we could.

“We were talking to the sheriff’s department the whole time on our cell phones by then. They got a gurney out to the boat as soon as we got there and took care of him.”

Olsen, it turns out, had rolled his car about a mile away a few hours earlier. He had apparently been confused and wandered into the marsh and was stuck there until Harnitz and Rhoten showed up.

“I haven’t been involved in anything like this before,” Rhoten said. “We’ve hunted that area before and there’s no way we could have expected this.”

MSU wrestling coach Jim Makovsky said Olsen was fortunate that Rhoten was one of the guys who found him. Rhoten is working on a graduate degree in biology and eventually hopes to land a job with the Department of Natural Resources as a fishery specialist.

“Jason has a good head on his shoulders,” Makovsky said. “He’s like the perfect guy for a situation like this.”



Jim Rueda is the Free Press sports editor. To contact him, call 344-6381 or e-mail him at jrueda@mankatofreepress.com

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