Beach hero jumps into the water after spotting 3 girls in danger of drowning

UC Davis water polo player Lillie Vehling rescued three girls who had been struggling in Lake Washington during Seattle’s annual Seafair festival.

“They were already bobbing up and down, trying to get breaths, and one of the girls was actually drowning the others in order to breathe,” she said.

“That’s when I knew I had to jump in.”

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Vehling said that she saved the girl who was drowning the others first “so that the others weren’t even in worse shape.”

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“I removed them one by one,�“The first girl — I, again, don’t really remember how I did it, but I got her back to the shallow water.”

After rescuing the second swimmer, Vehling untangled the third girl from the buoy rope and brought her up to safety.

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“Unfortunately, by the time I had gotten to the third girl, it was just the top of her head that was there,” Vehling said.

“I just saw her black hair in the water barely floating and when I got to her, she was unconscious.I lifted her head up out of the water and had my arm underneath her armpit holding her up,” she added.

Vehling had gone to Genesee Park to watch the U.S.Navy Blue Angels flight demonstration squadron when the emergency unfolded.(Al Drago/Getty Images)

“I removed them one by one.”

Seafair later honored Vehling for the rescue, inviting her to its gala — where she was knighted and named Seafair royalty.

She was also given a special opportunity to see the U.S.Navy Blue Angels, a squadron she has long admired. 

The California native noticed three girls bobbing up and down in Lake Washington (lake pictured above) and struggling to get breaths.(Genna Martin/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)

Drowning is the leading cause of death among children ages 1 to 4 and the second-leading cause of unintentional injury death among children ages 5 to 14, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

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Similar rescues have made recent headlines across the country. 

Seafair, Seattle’s annual summer festival (pictured above), honored Lillie Vehling after she rescued three girls from drowning in Lake Washington.(Genna Martin/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)

Earlier this summer, two Florida lifeguards were credited withsaving a 5-year-old boywho was pulled unconscious from the ocean at Silver Beach after his frantic family flagged them down for help.

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In LA County, lifeguards performed nearly 2,000 ocean rescuesover a single weekendamid extreme heat and dangerous surf conditions.