HELENA – Dani Wagner, Taylor Salonen and Oona Harrington headed home from Monday night’s team dinner like they would have any other evening. The trio, all contributors on the No. 24 Carroll College women’s basketball program, was focused on Tuesday night’s key Frontier Conference game against Rocky Mountain College. But the routine evening suddenly took an unusual turn.
“Two of us had walked into the house and (Wagner) was outside and thought she heard someone yell, ‘Help.’ She waited around to see if she was hearing something, but, little did she know, there was someone out there across the street from us in the snow. She yelled out, ‘Are you OK?’ and she heard a voice call back, ‘No,'” recalled Harrington, a sophomore for the Fighting Saints. “She ran over there, me and my other roommate came out and drove the car over there to find a woman in the snow covered and cold. She looked like she was in pain, she said she was OK, but we ended up helping her up and got her into the car and brought her to God’s Love Shelter here. We took her there and she seemed fine, but it was unexpected.”
“Typically when you get a call from a parent about three of your players at night, you’re a little bit worried. But this is actually a great story,” said head coach Rachelle Sayers. “It was cold, she had been there a couple of hours. Not exactly sure how she got there or why she couldn’t get out, but her leg was kind of frozen and she wasn’t able to move. They were able to get her out of the snowbank and make sure she was OK. They found out her name, asked her if she needed something and they went to grab their car and take her to God’s Love.
“They picked her up a Pepsi along the way. They asked if she needed something and she said she wanted a Pepsi, so they stopped and got her a Pepsi and got her safe and sound to God’s Love. It was pretty cool of them to take the time, make sure she was OK, and not only make sure she was OK, but get her to a safe place. Obviously, with the temperatures we’ve had lately, for her to stay there much longer could have been pretty tragic.”
Wagner, Salonen and Harrington suit up Tuesday evening to face the Battlin’ Bears, winners of seven straight games. Opening tip is slated for 5:30 p.m. at Carroll’s P.E. Center.
