College Wrestlers Brayden Lowry, Kendell Cummings Hospitalized After Bear Attack

Two wrestlers from Division III Northwest College in Powell, Wyoming, survived a bear attack this weekend when one of them stepped in to save the other.

Teammates Kendell Cummings and Brayden Lowry detailed the harrowing encounter to ABC News (h/t ESPN), noting that it occurred when they and two other teammates were searching for fallen antlers in Shoshone National Forest on Saturday.

Lowry recounted being the first one to get attacked by the grizzly, saying: "The bear came running out of the trees. I didn't even see it until it was right in front of me, but I heard the crashing. The only thing I could yell is: 'Bear! Bear!' I just knew I had to protect my head and just kind of fight for life, you know—it's life or death."

Cummings explained his decision to attempt to fight the bear off rather than running: "I didn't want to lose my friend. It was bad. There was a big ol' bear on top of him. I could have run and potentially lost a friend or get him off and save him."

When Cummings attempted to get the bear off Lowry, it then began to attack him. At one point, the bear walked away, but then returned and attacked again, per Cummings.

"It knocked me onto the ground and then, with its head, pushed me on the ground all the way up against the trees and then kind of pinned me up there and it was attacking me," Cummings told ABC. "I was putting my hands in its mouth and stuff, so it wouldn't be chewing on my neck and everything."

Lowry managed to walk to an area that had cellphone service to call 911, while teammates August Harrison and Orrin Jackson helped carry Cummings off the mountain after the bear left for a second time.

Lowry said he suffered a broken arm and puncture wounds, while Cummings required surgery for his injuries, but both survived and were no longer listed as patients at Billings Clinic Hospital as of Tuesday.