An area teenager officially became one of the nation’s heroes Wednesday when he was presented with the Carnegie Medal.

The Carnegie Heroes Foundation “awards a medal to individuals who risk their lives to an extraordinary degree while saving or attempting to save the lives of others,” said Douglas R. Chambers, director of external affairs for the foundation. Chambers presented the award at an assembly at St. Joseph’s Consolidated School.

Zachary Mortenson, a student at Harrison High School whose father lives in Seven Mile, was 15 years old and swimming with Joe Garcia, a friend of the family, at Hueston Woods State Park on June 8, 2011. As they were packing up to leave in the mid-afternoon, they began watching someone swimming further and further out into Acton Lake chasing an inflatable device.

After watching him for two or three minutes the swimmer was about 250 yards out in the water and it became apparent that he was struggling, and Garcia told Mortenson to go after him.

“I didn’t think about it at all,” Mortenson said. “I just went out there, and when I got to him, he was underwater. He was conscious but not able to do anything.”

Although he’d never had any lifeguard or life-saving training, he grasped the man in a cross-chest carry and towed him to shore. But at about 75 yards out, he began to struggle himself.

“At that point, you could see his character kick in,” Garcia said. “For the last 10 yards, I could see in his face that he wasn’t giving up.”

As it turns out, the swimmer, Dane J. Sapp, a Miami University student, was a certified lifeguard himself.

Sapp told the JournalNews in a previous interview that he was at the point of exhaustion when he saw Mortenson swimming toward him.

“It was terrifying — seemed like every second was an hour,” Sapp said; he was able to tread water and stay afloat until help arrived.

Sapp said he was checked out at a local hospital to make sure no water had gotten into his lungs. He visited Mortenson after the incident.

“He’s a pretty cool kid, mature and really in shape,” Sapp said. “He was the perfect person to go out there for me.”

The Carnegie Heroes Fund was founded by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie in 1904 after he heard news reports of heroic rescues in a Pittsburgh-area mining disaster.

Mortenson is the 9,537th individual to receive the award. He is the 565th Ohio resident and the 11th person from Hamilton to be honored, Chambers said. The Carnegie Hero Fund awards between 75 and 100 medals annually in the United States and Canada.

Mortenson has also received commendations from the U.S. House of Representatives and the Ohio House of Representatives for the rescue.