Following the death of a 17-year-old Nigerian-born Abdul-Jammal who drowned during school trip in Canada (READ HERE), another student of the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, reportedly died on Sunday July 12 while swimming with friends in the Deerfield River in Deerfield, Massachusetts.
20-year-old Oluwatoni Onikeku, known as ‘Toni’ to friends and family in Fitchburg, was an active member of the campus community and a high jumper and sprinter for the track and field team, the River Hawks, at the university, where he earned several medals.
His family left Nigeria when Toni was 7 and have been living in Fitchburg for 13 years.
Onikeku was swimming with friends in the Deerfield River near Stillwater Bridge when something went wrong and he drowned, Deerfield police said in a statement. Police and other responders were called to the area at 5:25 p.m.
“He was a very good kid,” Chinelo Onikeku, Toni’s mother, said by phone on Monday. “He was hard-working in his education, and very devoted to sports.”
Onikeku was a high jumper and sprinter for the track and field team, the River Hawks, at UMass Lowell, where he earned several medals, according to a statement from the team.
“Onikeku will be remembered as an athlete, a student, an active member of the campus community and, by most people, as a friend,” the team said.
“Toni was one of the leaders on our team,” Coach Gary Gardner said Monday night. Gardner explained that Onikeku was a member of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, and was elected to a leadership position on the committee.
In the hours after the news that Onikeku’s body had been recovered, the UMass Lowell athletics community began collectively mourning on social media.
The hashtags #FlyHighTO and #ForeverARiverhawk accompanied Onikeku’s photos as his teammates and friends posted memories, support messages, and thoughts of disbelief to Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Onikeku had also been involved in track and field at Fitchburg High School, where he broke a 40-year-old record for the high jump, his mother said.
GREG SAULMON Emergency personnel on Stillwater Road in Deerfield Sunday during the search for Oluwatoni Onikeku of Deerfield
According to Onikeku’s mother, the family had been in Fitchburg for 13 years.
“He loved it here,” she said, adding that the family moved to the city after living in Boston for seven months, and before that, Nigeria.
Onikeku was 7 when she brought him to the United States, his mother said.
She said that at Fitchburg High School, her son was in the National Honor Society and on the dean’s list. Onikeku graduated from Fitchburg High in 2012.
After college, he had planned on getting his master’s degree in public health, and then his PhD, Onikeku said. “On Wednesday he was telling me, ‘I’m going to have my PhD by 23,’ ” she said.
Credit: Boston Globe