Multiple Macon college students collapse at sporting events in 3-day span, 2 dead

Three college students collapsed suddenly at athletic events in Macon over a three-day span, two of whom died at a local hospital, according to county and college officials.

A Wesleyan College cross country runner died suddenly during a track meet on Middle Georgia State’s campus Saturday morning.

Nefertari Holston, 23, was one of three college students who collapsed at athletic events in Macon.

Holston died at the Julius Johnson Invitational, a cross country race hosted by Mercer at Middle Georgia State’s Georgia Premier Cross Country Course in west Macon. Mercer, Georgia College, ABAC, Fort Valley State and a variety of other colleges from Georgia and neighboring states attended the meet.

“The entire Wesleyan College community is deeply saddened by the death of one of our students,” Wesleyan spokesperson Drew Davidson wrote in an email. “Our thoughts and prayers are with her family and friends during this difficult time. 

“This student has been a vibrant part of our campus, and this loss will no doubt impact us all. We are providing counseling services to our students, and we encourage anyone to reach out. We ask you to respect our students and our community’s privacy as we grieve and come to terms with this loss.”

Medical staff were present at the cross country meet. Holston was transported to the emergency room at Atrium Health Navicent in downtown Macon, where she died at 10:30 a.m., according to Jones.

“They told us she was running and collapsed,” Bibb County coroner Leon Jones said of the coroner’s office responding to Holston’s death. “That’s the only thing they told us.”

It was unclear where Holston collapsed on the Georgia Premier course, which is a winding, grassy path flanked by metal poles that dips up and down hills while taking runners beneath power lines, around a picturesque pond and, briefly, into a gravel-pathed thicket of pines.

The exact cause of Holston’s death was unknown as of Tuesday, Jones said. An autopsy Monday produced no abnormal findings, but the complete report detailing what led to Holston’s collapse will not return for another three months, according to the coroner.

Macon did experience some unseasonable late September heat over the weekend — the high on Saturday was 93 degrees, per the National Weather Service — though without autopsy results it’s unclear if the weather played a role in Holston’s death.

Holston, a junior at Wesleyan, arrived in Macon in 2021 from her hometown of Dothan, Alabama. There she attended Emmanuel Christian School, a small private K-12 school, where she was routinely on the honor roll while in high school. A strong student, the psychology major made Wesleyan’s Provost List in Spring of 2024.

A deputy coroner contacted Holston’s mother and notified her of her daughter’s death. Jones’ office has not heard from the family since Saturday.

Holston’s family and Wesleyan College declined to comment further, requesting privacy following her death. Wesleyan held a vigil for Holston with students and employees Saturday night and canceled Sunday family weekend activities.

Two Mercer students, including football player, collapse

Mercer football player Khalil Moody passed out during the Bears’ home game against The Citadel Saturday evening. Moody was alert at a local hospital that night and in better health by Monday, Mercer coaches said. 

Mercer student Mason Sells, 20, collapsed and died during an intramural soccer match Monday evening.

Moody’s collapse happened after the Mercer football game began with a moment of silence in remembrance of Holston. Though Moody recuperated in the hospital after an ambulance escorted him from Mercer’s Five Star Stadium, the medical emergency silenced the crowd and nearly led to the game being suspended.

“It really puts everything into perspective that this is just a game,” Mercer head coach Mike Jacobs said Saturday of Moody’s injury. “I’m a dad to two young children, so it resonates and hits home. I look at every one of those players that wears orange and white as an extension of my own family.”

Moody was alert Saturday night after the game and in better condition Monday morning, Jacobs said at a press conference Monday.

Sells died Monday night during an intramural soccer game on the field next to Mercer’s football stadium. A soccer ball hit him in the chest before he collapsed, though the cause of his death was still unknown Tuesday, Jones said.

The Mercer junior, an accounting major less than a week shy of his 21st birthday, was a dedicated member of Alpha Tau Omega fraternity, friends told The Melody. He was in charge of planning a Homecoming event and making T-shirts for the group.

ATO president Jacob Woods said Sells joined the chapter in the fall of 2022, when he proved to be “an asset to the chapter.”

Woods grew close to Sells on a trip to an ATO president’s meetup in Chicago, where he remembers walking through the snow and throwing snowballs at each other.

“He was an amazing brother,” Woods said. “He was the most level-headed, and his love for people around him was so evident.”

Sells’ fraternity brother Nolan Barnes described Sells as hilarious, “the funniest addition to our chapter,” and an incredible person to work with. He said Sells had a strong sense of style and was a good person to bounce ideas off of.

Jones contacted Sells’ father to notify him of his son’s death Monday night.

“I had to call his father… these parents are in shock,” he said. “It’s just different because they have their whole lives ahead of them, and they’re athletic. They’re in good shape. You can’t tell what happened.”

Officials performed an autopsy Wednesday morning. Results will come back in three months.

Jones, in the wake of Sells’ death, recalled Baba Agbaje, a Mercer men’s soccer player and finance student who collapsed and died in a similar fashion during a pickup soccer game on the same field during April 2023.

“This is not the first time I’ve seen an athlete or someone healthy fall over dead… and it was heartbreaking then,” he said. “When they got the results back (showing why Agbaje died), his mom and dad were physicians, I called them immediately to have the other kids tested for that condition. You never know with these things.”

Jones said cases like Holston and Sells tend to involve cardiac issues that are nearly impossible to know about in advance, but that it’s hard to know anything until after an autopsy is completed and analyzed.

Melody reporter Casey Choung contributed to this story.