A former Vanderbilt track and field athlete and her sister died in a boating accident on Sunday, according to Texas Parks and Wildlife Department officials.
via: People
Teegan Hill, 31, and her sister Troinee Broom, 28, were out with friends on Lewisville Lake on Sunday when they were thrown from their boat and did not resurface, the City of Highland Village said in a statement obtained by PEOPLE.
The sisters had rented a boat with friends to celebrate Hill’s July 4 birthday when it began taking on water with 12 people, including the driver, on board, KDFW reported. The bodies of Hill and Broom, who were not wearing life jackets, were recovered on Sunday night, according to KTVT.
“They were like two peas in a pod. They did everything together,” the girls’ father Antroin Broom told KDFW. “Two beautiful girls. They loved life, they loved people. I just ask people to pray for me and my family.”
Broom was reportedly a kindergarten teacher in Dallas, while Hill was an associate attorney at The Bassett Firm, according to her LinkedIn profile.
A graduate of Thurgood Marshall School of Law, she was also a star runner on Vanderbilt’s track and field team.
“It’s difficult for me to process the tragic news of the deaths of Teegan Hill and her sister, Troinee,” Vanderbilt athletics director Candice Storey Lee wrote on Twitter. “I remember Teegan’s talent on the track, but even more so as a sweet and kind woman. Our hearts go out to her family, teammates and all who loved her. She’s forever a Commodore.”
It’s difficult for me to process the tragic news of the deaths of Teegan Hill and her sister, Troinee. I remember Teegan’s talent on the track, but even more so as a sweet and kind woman. Our hearts go out to her family, teammates and all who loved her. She’s forever a Commodore.
— Candice Storey Lee (@VandyAD) July 6, 2021
Hill specialized in the 200-meter run and 400, and at the Ole Miss Invitational in 2009, ran 24.48 seconds in the outdoor 200, the 10th-fastest time in Vanderbilt history, The Tennessean reported.
An investigation is underway to determine the cause of the incident, and officials are looking into whether the boat was overloaded, according to KTVT.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with their family and that we must stress the importance of wearing a life preserver when boating, no matter your ability to swim or not,” Highland Village Fire Department Chief Michael Thomson tells PEOPLE in a statement. “We feel that if the victims of this tragedy had been wearing life preservers, we may have had a very different outcome.”
Sending our condolences to the family.
