Brady Lowry and Kendell Cummings each started wrestling at the age of 3, beginning a journey in the sport that led to state championships and eventually to Northwest College in Wyoming. 

On the mat, they developed survival skills. Off it, they bonded over their love for the outdoors and passion for shed hunting. 

Those two worlds intersected Saturday afternoon on a Wyoming mountain — the site of the harrowing encounter with a massive grizzly bear and a heroic life-saving act that’s made national headlines.  

With an afternoon hike winding down near the Bobcat-Houlihan trailhead in northwest Wyoming, Lowry and Cummings split from teammates August Harrison and Orrin Jackson on the walk back to their truck.  

“Me and Kendell went high walking back, trying to find some more sheds and that’s where we started seeing a lot of bear sign,” said Lowry, a two-time Utah state champion and 149-pound sophomore for Northwest College. “I looked at the ground and I was like, ‘Kendell, there’s a lot of bear sign in here’ and right after I said that we started hearing crashing through thick trees. I looked over and I saw a bear and started yelling, ‘Bear! Bear!’ and it attacked me first initially. It knocked me off a ledge and it was throwing me around like a ragdoll. It was the most helpless feeling I’ve ever had. It was going to kill me. It had every intention of killing me. It was throwing me around and stomping me.”

That’s when Cummings rushed to his teammate’s help. 

“I wouldn’t be here if he didn’t do something — if he decided to run and get help,” Lowry said. “His instincts kicked in and saved my life. I 100-percent believe that.” 

Said Cummings: “I wasn’t going to watch this bear take my friend’s life right in front of me. I was going to do something about it.” 

Cummings latched on to the bear’s ear and pulled it off Lowry. 

“Then it was locked onto me,” Cummings said. “It bull rushed me and tackled me onto the ground and started attacking me. Then it left me alone for a little bit and I called out to Brady and the bear heard me call out to him and it knew I was still alive and in the area, so it came back around and attacked me again.”

Cummings said he could hear the bear “crunching and grinding” its teeth into his skull. 

“It was pretty horrifying,” he said. “When it was on top of me I was short neck, protecting my head.” 

“Elbows in,” Lowry said. 

“Kind of passing its paws by,” Cummings said. 

After the second attack, Cummings said he remained “quiet for two or three minutes and that’s when I kind of sneaked off the mountain. I limped down, probably a half-mile or a third of a mile and they got me off the hill.” 

Lowry and Cummings estimate the bear stood 8 feet tall and weighed 500 pounds 

“A little out of our weight class,” Lowry said. 

Both wrestlers were transported to a hospital in Billings, Montana. 

Cummings said he has a detached biceps, a cheek that’s been stitched back together, 60 staples on his head and 300 stitches on his body. 

Lowry said he has a broken arm and bite wounds on his right shoulder and right thigh. Lowry said they’re both expected to make a full recovery. 

"I couldn't be more proud of these young men, the way they looked out for each other, protected each other," Northwest College coach Jim Zeigler said in a story published by the Powell (Wyo.) Tribune. "They wouldn't have survived without each other. It was horrific, it was courageous. And I'm grateful that those guys loved each other and took care of each other."