Last week just outside Cody, Wyoming, a group of college wrestlers from nearby Northwest College came across a grizzly bear.
When the bear attacked, one brave student fought back. Though two of the young men were hurt, the teammates miraculously made it out of the ordeal alive.
Brady Lowry, Kendell Cummings, Orrin Jackson and August Harrison were antler hunting on Saturday after an early morning practice, KTWO-AM reported.
As the group was headed back to their car, Lowry and Cummings decided to break off from the other two to keep looking for antlers, according to KSL-TV.
Soon they came upon signs of a bear.
“I saw bear crap all over, and I looked at Kenny and said, ‘There is a grizzly bear here,’” Lowry told KSL. “And right after I said that, the bear came out of the willows. It was thick. It came at me and charged me and tackled me off this cliff into this gulley and was going at me for a little bit.”
When the bear went for Lowry it grabbed his arm and broke it.
“It shook me around and I didn’t know what to do. … I curled up in a ball and it got me a few more times,” he said.
Have you ever been attacked by a wild animal?
Cummings sprang into action. He began yelling at the bear, trying to draw its attention.
Finally, Cummings began kicking the bear and grabbing its hair until it turned away from Lowry and started going after him instead.
“It tackled me, chewed me up a bit, and then when it was done, it wandered off, and I started calling out for Brady to make sure he was alright,” Cummings said.
However, the bear was not done with Cummings. It came back around while Lowry was gone, trying to find their teammates.
“The bear circled back around, and it got me again, chewed on me, and that’s when it got my head and cheek. And then it went away again for whatever reason,” Cummings said.
Lowry, Jackson and Harrison found Cummings in rough shape.
“He was just drenched in blood coming down the hill everywhere. Me and Orrin took turns carrying him,” Harrison told Fox News.
The students had called 911, and first responders arrived soon. Cummings was air-lifted to a hospital, and both he and Lowry eventually ended up at a trauma center in Billings, Montana.
The Cowboy State Daily reported that both students needed multiple surgeries for their injuries.
Cummings needed 60 staples in his head and suffered major lacerations to his face, left arm and left leg. He required plastic surgery for his face and stitches for his right hand and leg.
Along with his broken arm, Lowry had lacerations on his back, shoulders and right leg.
KSL’s Shara Park spoke with Lowry and Cummings and tweeted pictures of the teammates in the hospital.
“The young men say they’re alive today because of their teammates,” Park said.
Coming up at 5 on @KSL5TV: A wrestler from Utah attacked by a grizzly bear in Wyoming, he and his teammate who was also attacked spoke exclusively with me from their hospital in Montana. The young men say they’re alive today because of their teammates. #ksltv pic.twitter.com/CDGLgIbs9h
— Shara Park ✨ (@KSLSharaPark) October 17, 2022
“I can’t even express how grateful I am for [Cummings]. I don’t know what I’m going to pay him back, I don’t. I owe him everything,” Lowry told the Cowboy State Daily.
When Lowry’s father, Dallas Lowry, got to the hospital to see his son, he found the rest of the wrestling team already there.
He told the Cowboy State Daily just how much the teammates mean to each other and how grateful everyone is to Cummings for saving Lowry’s life.
“College athletics is where these boys turn into men and they adopt these brothers that they never leave. For the rest of their lives they’ll remember these things,” Dallas Lowry, who is also a wrestling coach, said.
The Northwest College wrestling coach, Jim Ziegler, told Fox that both Lowry and Cummings are expected to make a full recovery.
Northwest College has set up a fundraiser to help pay the wrestlers’ medical bills.
