UW Mens Rodeo Team Closes in on Regional Title

It’s just a matter of time before the University of Wyoming men’s rodeo team ends a 13-year drought.

The Cowboys are just two rodeos away from capturing their first Central Rocky Mountain Region (CRMR) team title since winning back-to-back regional championships during the 2004-05 and 2005-06 seasons.

For the second time this season, the Pokes scored 700-plus points in taking their fifth team title of the fall and spring seasons in eight events. With just two rodeos remaining on the docket, the UW men are well on their way to the team championship that has eluded them in more than a decade.

With junior Ty Everson, of Helena, Mont., putting together an all-around performance, scoring nearly half of UW’s team points, the Pokes rolled to a team-high 725 points at the Colorado State University (CSU) rodeo in Fort Collins last weekend.

The team’s second-highest output of the season boosted the UW men’s eight-rodeo total to a region-leading 4,120 points, a 1,175-point margin ahead of two-time defending CRMR champion Sheridan College. The Generals have 2,945 points on the year, while Gillette College is third with 2,716.66 points.

The UW Cowgirls were second at CSU, rallying to close the gap between first and second place in the women’s regional standings. Only 22 points separate the UW women from first-place Eastern Wyoming College (EWC); however, perennial champion Gillette College dominated the CSU rodeo to move within 50 points of the UW women. The Pronghorns are solidly in third place.

Just the top two teams in the region automatically send full men’s and women’s teams to the June College National Finals Rodeo in Casper.

Earlier in the season, the hard-charging Cowboys set a school record of 855 points at Central Wyoming College in Riverton.

“Our men’s team did a great job, but I was equally impressed and probably more proud of all the other kids who are not on the points teams,” first-year Coach Beau Clark says. “People who are not on the points team had a great weekend and really represented this program well.”

Clark says UW’s overall team depth is pushing both clubs to excel this season.

Everson led the way for the Pokes, as he personally accounted for 305 individual points on his way to winning the all-around title in the men’s competition. Laramie County Community College was second with 555 points, and Casper College was a distant third at 453.33.

Everson partnered with UW teammate Seth Peterson, a Minot, N.D., junior, to take the team roping title. They recorded the fourth-best time in the opening round, then roped their way to take the short go and the overall average.

With three individuals having solid weekends, it was Everson who stood out among this teammates. The Montana all-around hand also was the steer wrestling runner-up, on the strength of winning the opening round, to tally 135 team points. His final 20 came when he had the fifth-best time in tie down roping.

If Everson was tough during the weekend, Peterson was just as solid, as he, too, scored in three separate events. Besides teaming up with Everson to win the team roping event for an additional 150 points for the UW men’s total output, he added points in two other events. He scored 60 points by winning the tie down’s opening round and placed sixth in both rounds of steer wrestling for an additional 20 points. He scored 230 individual points.

The final 190 points were scored by Jace Staudt. The junior from Nathrop, Colo., combined with UW partner Dusty Taylor, a Craig, Colo., junior, to win the opening round of team roping and placed fourth in the average. Staudt added 100 points in tie down roping, placing in both rounds of competition. He had the third-best time in the opening round and was fourth in the short go for fourth in the average.

Clark also praised the efforts of non-points team members John Birkholz, a senior from Fountain, Colo.; senior Jake Fulton, from Valentine, Neb.; and Garrett Nunn, a freshman from Laramie.

Birkholz was fifth in the saddle bronc competition; Fulton was third in steer wrestling; and Nunn was third in team roping with partner Gage Greer, a Gillette senior.

Gillette College served notice that it’s a three-team race for the CRMR women’s team title after scoring 435 points at CSU last weekend. The Cowgirls were a distant second with 185 points, while Chadron State College was third at 155.

EWC, which has been in first place since the final fall rodeo, maintained its lead with 2,102 points, while the Cowgirls are second with 2,080 points, and Gillette College is third at 2,030.

Junior Teisha Coffield, of Yuma, Colo., nearly accounted for the team’s entire 185 points, scoring 135 individual points. She was second in the goat tying opening round, splitting third in the short go to finish as the average’s runner-up.

Sophomore Rachael Calvo, of Bassett, Neb., added 40 points by placing third in barrel racing’s opening round. The final 10 points for the Cowgirls were picked up by Cheyenne’s Justene Hirsig in team roping. The junior combined with Casper College’s Logan Brown for the sixth-best time in the event’s opening round.

“On the women’s side, I thought Teisha did a great job stepping up in the goats,“ Clark says. Coffield usually scores the bulk of her points in breakaway roping, an event that she leads in the region.

Clark also praised the efforts of non-points team members Lyndi Anderson, a Billings, Mont., senior; junior Lakken Bice, of Killdeer, N.D.; and Payton Donnelly, an Elk Point, S.D., junior.

Bice won the barrel racing competition; Anderson was third in goat tying; and Donnelly was sixth in one round of goat tying.

Casper College hosts the annual Ropin’ and Riggin’ Days Rodeo April 19-21.