UW Teams Among Top Three at Opening Spring Rodeo

The University of Wyoming rodeo teams got off to a steady start in the spring rodeo season by placing among the top three teams in their respective divisions at Gillette College last weekend.

The Central Rocky Mountain Region (CRMR)-leading UW men’s team placed third in the weekend opening rodeo, and the Cowgirls were in the same position in the women’s competition.

UW’s men totaled 415 points, while Laramie County Community College (LCCC) put together its best performance through six rodeos in taking the Gillette College team title with 680 points. The host Pronghorns were the runners-up with 490 points.

The Gillette women took team honors with 590 points to easily outdistance the entire field. The UW Cowgirls were a distant third with 155 points, while Northeastern Junior College (Sterling, Colo.) placed second at 210 points.

Bodie Mattson, from Sturgis, S.D., was the Cowboys’ top points team member. He and partner Carson Johnson, from Casper College, came through to win the short go in team roping, putting them over the top to capture the average. They tied for second in the opening round. The pair lead the CRMR team roping standings.

Other scoring for the Cowboys came from:

-- Brice Patterson, of Bozeman, Mont., came from the No. 6 position in the opening round to place second in the bareback riding short go, propelling him to second in the average.

-- Teammate Donny Proffit, from Kemmerer, was fifth in the bareback riding average.

-- The final points came from Cameron Jensen, of Hyannis, Neb., when he and partner Tanner Whetham, of Chadron State College, were fourth in the team roping average.

The UW women’s scoring was spread among three of the four points team members:

-- Faith Hoffman, of Kiowa, Colo., had a strong opening goat tying performance, recording the long go round’s fastest time. She faltered a bit in the short go with a fifth-place time that left her fourth in the average. She also scored breakaway roping points but did not place in the average.

-- Sage Kohr, from Gillette, split fourth place in the opening round but did not place in the breakaway roping average.

-- Kenna McNeill, from Hobbs, N.M., had fourth-place points in the long go but did not place in the overall average in goat tying.

Both the Cowboys and Cowgirls remain in contention for the top two CRMR automatic bids to this summer’s College National Finals Rodeo in Casper.

The Cowboys are still the region’s top men’s team with 3,460 points going into this weekend’s rodeo at Eastern Wyoming College in Torrington. Casper College is second in the CRMR standings with 3,065 points, and LCCC is third at 2,620.

Gillette College has a solid hold of the women’s standings with 2,549 points through six rodeos, while the Cowgirls are second with 1,663.33 points. The LCCC women are third with 1,183.33 points.

Several UW Cowboys and Cowgirls also placed during the opening rodeo, but they were not on the six- and four-person points teams. Halle Hladky, of Gillette, and Rock Springs’ Makenzi Scott were first and second, respectively, in barrel racing; Cassidy March, of Hot Springs, S.D., split second place in breakaway roping; Colter Nunn, from Laramie, was fourth in tie down roping; and Jacob Wang, from Baker, Mont., split first place in steer wrestling.