Authorities have identified the man who died after jumping off a cliff into the St. Croix River as 20 year-old Alex William Vitalis, a St. Thomas student who had completed his freshman year.

Chisago County authorities responded Monday night after receiving a report that a man jumped from a rock ledge on the Wisconsin side of the river near the Franconia Landing and did not surface.

Vitalis’ body was found Tuesday afternoon by a member of the Stacy Lent Dive team.

The Chisago County Sheriff’s Office, Taylors Falls Fire Department, Stacy Lent Fire Department, Polk County Wisconsin, the National Park Service and the Osceola Fire Department were among the agencies involved in the recovery effort. Authorities said cliff jumping and diving along the St. Croix is illegal.

Doug Hennes, vice president of university and governmental relations, said St. Thomas’ dean’s office has been in contact with the family and that they seemed to be in a “state of shock.”

The university notified members of the St. Thomas community of Vitalis’ death in an email sent Wednesday afternoon.

“Our prayers are with the family and we wish them the best as they deal with the tragedy,” Hennes said.

Vitalis was known to be a strong swimmer and was with friends when the accident occurred.

“He grew up in that area…and he had apparently done this kind of thing in the past,” Hennes said.

Friends and family gathered at a boat landing on the St. Croix Wednesday and Isaiah Johnson, a friend of the victim, told Fox 9 News that coming back to the river was difficult.

“It’s definitely like the toughest moment as far as it comes to coming to grips that everything that has happened and hearing that he drowned,” Johnson said. “It really snaps into reality that he is gone.”

Vitalis was the son of St. Thomas alumni Wade Vitalis and Carol Nagele-Vitalis of Shafer, Minn.