or the past five years, the University of Wyoming rodeo teams have dominated the regional competition, but that has not translated to winning it all at the national level.
The UW Cowboys and Cowgirls will get that opportunity at the College National Finals Rodeo (CNFR) June 11-17 at the Ford Wyoming Center in Casper.
The Cowgirls have won five national titles, the last coming in 2009. For the men, it has been even longer. The Cowboys won their only National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association team title in 1961.
The Cowboys are coming off their fifth straight Central Rocky Mountain Region (CRMR) championship this past season and head into the CNFR with the third-most points in the nation. The Cowgirls finished as the regional runners-up after winning the four previous CRMR team titles.
This year’s Cowboys team is perhaps the most well balanced, with strong competitors on both ends of the arena. Competing will be the six-man team of Cam Jensen, of Hyannis, Neb.; Bodie Mattson, of Sturgis, S.D.; Rio Nutter, from Rapid City, S.D.; Brice Patterson, of Bozeman, Mont.; Kemmerer’s Donny Proffit; and Jacob Wang, of Baker, Mont.
The women will be led at the CNFR by Sage Kohr, of Gillette; Faith Hoffman, from Kiowa, Colo.; Kenna McNeill, from Hobbs, N.M.; and Thermopolis’ Emme Norsworthy.
Jensen won the regional all-around title and will compete at the CNFR in tie down roping and team roping with partner Tanner Whetham, of Chadron State College. Jensen was the region’s top calf roper this past season.
Mattson, the CRMR’s reserve all-around winner this past season, also will do double duty in the roping events. He and partner Carson Johnson, of Casper College, were the top team ropers in the region.
Nutter, third in the CRMR all-around, and his partner, Reece Wadhams, of Laramie County Community College, will compete in team roping, an event in which they were the CRMR’s runner-up duo.
Both Patterson and Proffit will battle it out in bareback bronc riding, where they finished second and third, respectively, in the final regional standings.
Wang enters the CNFR steer wrestling competition as the defending CRMR champion.
Kohr, the regional all-around reserve champion, won two separate events this past season. She will compete in both barrel racing and breakaway roping at the year-end national rodeo. Norsworthy, the CRMR’s third-best barrel racer this past season, also will be in the same event as her teammate.
Hoffman and McNeill both will compete in goat tying, an event in which Hoffman was the regional runner-up and McNeill placed sixth in the overall standings.
Only the top two teams in all the national regions qualify for the CNFR, and the three best individuals in each event also qualified for college rodeo’s biggest event. The athletes with the top 12 times and scores from the weeklong CNFR will compete in the final round Saturday, June 17.
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