Wyoming
'Heroes and angels:' Pennsylvania hiker thanks responders after suffering head injury in Wyoming
A Pennsylvania family is thanking their lucky stars after their 22-year-old son has recovered from being struck by a tree that collapsed while he was hiking near Porcupine Falls in Wyoming earlier this summer.
Will Dusinberre was working at a ranch in Wyoming when he and some friends made the trek to Porcupine Falls on their day off. Instead of it being a peaceful summer hike, it turned into a nightmare when Dusinberre and his friends were struck by a tree as it collapsed.
“I don’t remember much from that day or even the day before really,” Dusinberre said Monday afternoon. “I just remember hiking out with my buddies and that we had stopped to swim and relax for a little bit.”
Dusinberre is hazy on the details of the day but has heard more of the timeline from witnesses and his friends that were there.
“Somebody yelled ‘Tree,’ and turned around and I was already hit,” Dusinberre said. “I didn’t have time to move.”
One of Dusinberre’s friends who wasn’t injured ran to the top of the trail looking for help. That run would’ve been about seventh-tenths of a mile, and he was shouting for help the entire way.
Fortunately, he managed to catch Michelle and Jesse Rystrom before they drove away. Michelle is an emergency nurse, and Jesse is a firefighter paramedic.
“We thought we heard somebody yell help,” Michelle said. “A young kid was running up the trail and was saying that a tree had fallen and one of his friends (was) bleeding from his head.”
Without thinking, the Rystroms sprang into action, sprinting down the trail to help the victims.
“Your adrenaline kind of just kicks in, and your mom mode kicks in, and you just start taking care of the kids,” Michelle said.
Both Rystroms said it was impeccable timing for them to be in the right position to help.
“Everything lined out just to help them because there was nobody else in the parking lot that was there,” Jesse said. “We almost weren’t even going to be there that day but the weather was cold so we stopped there.”
“You’re in the right place at the right time that’s for sure,” Michelle said.
With the Rystroms’ help, Dusinberre was eventually transported to St. Vincent’s Healthcare in Billings, where his parents had frantically traveled from Pennsylvania to be with their son.
“It wasn’t until we arrived that we found out how serious the injury was,” said Dusinberre’s mother Louise Dusinberre. “It was horrific. Will was unrecognizable.”
That shocking condition of their son left Louise numb.
“My emotions were just put on hold because you’re just full in that fight or flight,” Louise said. “It’s been the fight of our lifetime for a month and a half.”
That fight has included several surgeries, hours of rehab and plenty of dark days. Somehow, Will has remained positive the entire time.
“It’s allowed me to appreciate all the things I have in the moment and the things I can get back to eventually,” Will said.
Among those things is playing the guitar and singing. Will has managed to do that early in the rehab, donning an eye patch and missing teeth from the incident. It’s a sight and sound his mother is grateful for.
“It was just a lot of heroes and angels right where they needed to be,” Louise said.
Will is expected to make a full recovery and plans to get started with his senior year of college in the spring. Even he understands how fortunate he is that the Rystroms and others were there to help.
“I wouldn’t be here without them,” Will said. “But the fact that they were even there in the first place is just kind of a miracle.”
CASPER, Wyo. — High school athletics in Wyoming could see some drastic changes in the coming years following legislative changes to the state’s education budget, the Wyoming High School Activities Association recently announced in a statement.
According to the WHSAA, Wyoming school districts are facing a projected $3.9 million shortfall in activities funding, forcing officials to consider significant cuts to high school sports and extracurricular programs.
The WHSAA shared details regarding a new “silo” funding model implemented by the Legislature, stating that the recalibrated block grant model reduced funding for student activities and extra-duty responsibilities from $46.3 million to $42.4 million, an approximately 8.4% decrease statewide.
WHSAA Commissioner Trevor Wilson said the restructuring also restricts district access to an additional $76.2 million in previously flexible funding.
“A significant portion of the [April 28 WHSAA Board of Directors] meeting was dedicated to discussing the projected funding shortfall,” Wilson wrote.
The WHSAA is weighing several strategies to address rising costs with fewer resources. Proposed changes include eliminating regional tournaments and reducing the number of teams qualifying for state events from eight to four; limiting wrestling to two classes and restricting track and field state participants to the top 16 marks; making cuts to soccer, indoor track and field, Nordic and Alpine skiing, swimming and diving, spring golf and tennis; and reducing in-person speech and debate events by half and centrally locating All-State Music events to minimize travel. The board also recommended increasing gate admission or implementing student participation fees to offset costs.
While the WHSAA release states that no plans have been finalized and the various changes are currently just possibilities, Natrona County School District 1 Board of Trustees member Mary Schmidt criticized the WHSAA’s handling of the news at Monday’s board meeting.
“I take some issues with this, [including] the sheer fact that we as Board of Trustees members have not talked about that at all,” Schmidt said. “It is not our intent and it has not been brought to us to cut our athletics or activities budget for the upcoming school year. … I take issue with them picking sports and getting the community upset and ginning them up to be upset that this is all going to be cut when that hasn’t been discussed.”
Later in the meeting, Superintendent Angela Hensley clarified that Natrona County School District 1’s athletics and activities budget saw a reduction of roughly $550,000 in the coming year’s budget, but said the local school district does not plan to cut any sports.
“Thank you, Trustee Schmidt, for saying this, because I think people are wondering — we are not planning to cut athletics and activities for next year,” Hensley said. “We do have to take a look at our entire budget as we have talked about, as we learn more about these new rules that come in.”
Related
Republished with permission from Wyoming News Now, a TV news outlet covering the Cheyenne and Casper areas.
Cheyenne City Council has introduced a temporary moratorium, or pause, on new data center construction.
“The end goal is to actually have regulations in place, to have really heavy public involvement with this with data centers,” said Councilman Mark Moody.
The proposed ordinance is not a permanent ban on data centers and would not affect data centers currently under construction.
Councilman Moody says this is a bipartisan issue.
“I just want to make this clear, I’m not against data centers. We do need them from a national security perspective,” he said.
He said there needs to be more public input and regulations regarding data centers in Cheyenne.
The ordinance would require city staff to study data center impacts such as electricity usage, electricity tariffs, closed-loop cooling systems, groundwater impacts, agricultural impacts, and land value.
Cheyenne LEADS, the economic development corporation for Cheyenne and Laramie County, reported in November 2025 that there are 12 operational data centers in Wyoming, five under construction and plans for 43 data centers announced across the state.
“There needs to be more public input with this, and also to see how many we can sustain here in this community, cause there are talks of 43, and then another day 70. How many can we sustain here?” said Councilman Moody.
The proposed moratorium will now go to the Public Services Committee on Monday, May 18 at noon in the Municipal Building.
Sheridan will play in the North Regional Tournament at Gillette, while the South Regional Tournament will be played at Rock Springs.
North Regional Tournament at Gillette:
Checking record vs. highest team in the quadrant not involved in the tie, Thunder Basin gets the #1 Northeast seed over Campbell County, because the Lady Bolts went 3-1 vs. Sheridan, whereas the Lady Camels went 2-2.
Friday, May 15th:
(#1 NE) Thunder Basin vs. (#4 NW) Jackson – 11am
(#2 NW) Natrona County vs. (#3 NE) Sheridan – 11am
(#2 NE) Campbell County vs. (#3 NW) Kelly Walsh – 1pm
(#1 NW) Cody vs. (#4 NE) Worland – 1pm
Semi-Finals:
Thunder Basin/Jackson winner vs. Natrona County/Sheridan winner – 3pm Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
Campbell County/Kelly Walsh winner vs. Cody/Worland winner – 5pm Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
Consolation Round:
Thunder Basin/Jackson loser vs. Natrona County/Sheridan loser – 3pm LOSER OUT!
Campbell County/Kelly Walsh loser vs. Cody/Worland loser – 5pm LOSER OUT!
Saturday, May 16th:
TBA vs. TBA – 10am LOSER OUT! Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
TBA vs. TBA – 10am LOSER OUT! Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
2 10am winners vs. each other – 1pm 3rd Place
TBA vs. TBA – 1pm 1st Place
South Regional Tournament at Rock Springs:
Friday, May 15th:
(#1 SW) Laramie vs. (#4 SE) Torrington – 11am
(#2 SE) Cheyenne East vs. (#3 SW) Green River – 11am
(#2 SW) Rock Springs vs. (#3 SE) Wheatland – 1pm
(#1 SE) Cheyenne Central vs. (#4 SW) Cheyenne South – 1pm
Semi-Finals:
Laramie/Torrington winner vs. Cheyenne East/Green River winner – 3pm Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
Rock Springs/Wheatland winner vs. Cheyenne Central/Cheyenne South winner – 5pm Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
Consolation Round:
Laramie/Torrington loser vs. Cheyenne East/Green River loser – 3pm LOSER OUT!
Rock Springs/Wheatland loser vs. Cheyenne Central/Cheyenne South loser – 5pm LOSER OUT!
Saturday, May 16th:
TBA vs. TBA – 10am LOSER OUT! Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
TBA vs. TBA – 10am LOSER OUT! Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
2 10am winners vs. each other – 1pm 3rd Place
TBA vs. TBA – 1pm 1st Place
-
Education1 minute ago‘No Essay’ College Scholarships May Have Unseen Strings Attached
-
Technology7 minutes agoOpenAI keeps shuffling its executives in bid to win AI agent battle
-
World13 minutes agoHamas used sexual violence ‘deliberately and systematically’ on Oct 7, commission report finds
-
Politics19 minutes agoTrump leaves China with breakthroughs — and unfinished business on Xi’s biggest fights
-
Health25 minutes agoCancer-related brain fog may improve with 2 simple treatments, scientists say
-
Sports31 minutes agoSky vs Mercury betting preview: Why the over 166.5 looks like the play in this WNBA matchup
-
Technology37 minutes agoIs that traffic ticket text a scam or real?
-
Business43 minutes agoAltadena’s latest roadblock to rebuilding: Sewage