Florida college student TeNiya Jones drowns while swimming in Israel

A 19-year-old student from Florida in an exchange program in the Middle East drowned while visiting Tel Aviv, according to family members.

TeNiya Jones, 19, of Fort Myers had been missing since Saturday night.

The body of the University of Kentucky sophomore, who was in a seven-week exchange program in Jordan, washed up on a Israeli beach early Monday, according to The Times of Israel. Jones had disappeared off a beach in the Tel Aviv suburb of Bat Yam after entering the water for a late-night swim with two friends and getting caught in a rip current in the Mediterranean.

The friends, who also were caught in the current, were able to get to shore and rushed to call authorities, according to a press release from the University of Kentucky. Jones and her friends — a 20-year-old woman from the District of Columbia who attends the University of Kentucky and a 21-year-old man from Illinois who attends West Virginia University in Morgantown, according to family — had decided to take a weekend trip to Israel before returning Friday to the United States.

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During the summer, the University of Kentucky, based in Lexington, Kentucky, offers an intensive Arabic-language study program in Amman, Jordan. Jones was a biology major with a minor in Islamic studies who had earned a spot in the university's premedical program.

"She was supposed to start on August 23," said Jones mother, Tosha Thomas-Mora, before she broke down in tears.

Jones also had hopes of becoming a walk-on to Kentucky's track team next season.

Jones had been an athlete at Fort Myers' Dunbar High School, winning 100-meter and 300-meter hurdles county and district titles before taking silver in the events at regionals. As a high school sophomore won a regional championship in the 300-meter hurdles before suffering an ACL tear.

“She worked her (butt) off,” said Jones' former track coach, Guy Thomas. “She’s really mature for her age. She realized falling down and getting back up is a part of success.”

In 2017, Jones returned to finish second in the Lee County Athletic Championships. A few weeks later, she won a regional crown in the 100 hurdles.

"She came back when everyone was at their peak and she wasn't," he said. "And she still showed us all."

Jones mother, Thomas-Mora, is expected to leave Monday for Israel, arriving Tuesday.

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She is facing the death of her second child in less than a year. Her son, Samuel Jones Jr., 22, was shot and killed in a double homicide in December.

“I’m destroyed. I’m really destroyed. Why is this happening to her?" said Thomas, Jones former track coach. "She is great at everything she does. She was No. 1 in service to her community. No. 1 in the classroom."

Contributing: Adam Regan, Fort Myers (Fla.) News-Press; Thomas Novelly, Louisville (Ky.) Courier Journal. Follow Melanie Payne and Dan DeLuca on Twitter: @TellMel and @NewsPressDan

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