Two College Wrestlers Attacked by Grizzly Bear in Wyoming While Hunting

Two Wyoming college wrestlers were attacked by a grizzly bear and left severely injured while hunting on Saturday afternoon.

Kendall Cummings and Brady Lowry, sophomores at Northwest College in Powell, Wyo., faced the gruesome mauling while antler hunting west of the Bobcat Houlihan Trail, according to a news release from the Wyoming Game & Fish Department. 

The pair, who were with two other wrestlers before the attack, reportedly were in heavy cover at the time of the "sudden, surprise encounter with the grizzly bear” in close proximity. 

Cummings and Lowry were able to call 911 after the attack and received assistance from their teammates in getting back to the trailhead before meeting up with the Park County Search and Rescue. 

"I grabbed and yanked him hard by the ear," Cummings told Cowboy State Daily as he detailed the horrifying occurrence. “I could hear when his teeth would hit my skull, I could feel when he’d bite down on my bones and they’d kind of crunch.

One of the victims was airlifted to a nearby hospital in Montana while the other was transported by an ambulance and they each had to undergo surgeries, according to a fundraiser page created to help the men pay off medical expenses.  

There is an ongoing investigation into the region of the attack but the Wyoming Game & Fish Department says that there has been “an abundance of bear activity at low elevations” and people have been warned to take caution.

Furthermore, authorities say that landowners and hunters have reported that there may be up to 10 different bears in the area where the wrestlers were attacked.

“I don’t know what I’m going to pay him back, I don’t. I owe him everything," Lowry told the Cowboy Daily Press regarding Cummings’ actions that possibly saved his friend's life. “We'll be best friends for the rest of our lives."

In a mass email from Northwest College President Lisa Watson to the school's students and faculty, she confirms the incident and commends the wrestlers' bravery. 

"Due to the suddenness of the encounter, they were not able to deploy their bear spray," she said in the email. "I am so grateful for those who assisted these brave young men in the aftermath of this terrifying ordeal and that no lives were lost. It took quick thinking and no small amount of bravery for this to have ended without tragedy."

The two students are expected to make a full recovery.