It started out as just a regular day at the beach for Brighton High sophomores Dexter and Alexander Clark.

The fraternal twins, both members of the Bengals swim team, were busily smoothing sand to create a makeshift miniature golf course on Texas' South Padre Island in mid-August when they heard their mother call with shocking news: Someone was drowning in the choppy Gulf of Mexico about 30 yards from the shore.

The twins' mother, Verena Clark, had been approached by a girl looking for a lifeguard. A woman was drowning, the girl said. Clark scanned the waters and sure enough:

"I could see arms going up and down, up and down," the twins' mother said. "After a few more seconds, the arm motions started decreasing."

With no lifeguard in sight, Clark called to her boys, both competitive swimmers since age 8 who train year-round.

"Alexander came first," she recalled. Quickly she explained the situation to her son, and the 15-year-old sprinted with his boogie board into the surf.

"To this day I'm surprised by how fast that kid acted," she said. "A split second later, he was gone: freestyling with his board."

Dexter chased after his brother, and the two swam in the general direction of the victim, whom they couldn't see because of the waves.

Alexander reached the young woman first.

"As I got out to the girl," he said, "there was foam all around her hair, and she was just face-down in the water, motionless. She was just floating with the current."

Verena Clark said that while her boys have done little more than "eat, sleep and swim" for years, neither is a trained lifeguard.

"I never learned how to pull a person back [to shore]," Alexander said. "I flipped her over onto her back and just thought about getting her head above water and back to shore. I just did the best I could to keep her head above the waves."

As the twins neared the beach with the swimmer in tow, adults rushed to carry her the rest of the way.

By then, "she was already a bluish color," said Dexter, who didn't know if the girl was alive as he dragged her to dry land. "I hoped that she was still breathing."

Turns out, the young woman was breathing shallowly. When paramedics arrived minutes later, she didn't require CPR. The Clarks were relieved when she opened her eyes and began vomiting sea water.

Dexter and Alexander never spoke with the person they saved, and haven't met her since. All they know is that her name is "Erica" and she is around 18 years old.

For months, they have kept mostly quiet about that summer afternoon on South Padre Island, where their family owns a condo that they have visited every year since birth. In fact, not many people at Brighton High knew about the incident until recently, including Principal Charisse Hilton.

Hilton learned about the rescue about a month ago when she received a surprising letter from Burney Baskett, chief of the South Padre Island Fire Department, who provided an account and his own opinion of that day.

"The actions of Alexander and Dexter prevented the young lady from becoming a 'drowning statistic' and instead resulted in her being able to go home with her family," Baskett wrote. "Alexander and Dexter did not seek notoriety or even a 'thank you' for their efforts. In fact, it took many efforts to identify these two fine young men. Their modesty and humility only enhances my opinion of them. Alexander and Dexter are both true 'heroes' in that their actions directly resulted in a human life being saved. There is no higher achievement than that."

Hilton was touched both by the kind note and by her students' good deed. She said the Clarks will be honored at an upcoming assembly, where their classmates will hear of their heroics.

How do the twins respond to being called heroes?

"I don't know I would really say I'm a hero," Alexander said. "A hero saves a lot of lives. I just saved one. I mean, what person wouldn't try to save a life if he had the opportunity?"

Verena Clark said her boys, as teenagers, are a bit naive about their accomplishment. From their mothers' perspective, it beats any state championship or medal they could win in the pool.

"It's bigger than any Olympic trial time, saving that girl," she said. "It can't get any better than this in swimming."

closeup@sltrib.com