UW rodeo sweeps team titles at Torrington
Mar. 26—Both University of Wyoming rodeo teams swept their respective divisions at the Eastern Wyoming College rodeo in Torrington last weekend.
The strong performance solidified UW's chances of qualifying full squads for this years's College National Finals Rodeo in Casper.
The Cowboys opened up their lead in the Central Rocky Mountain Region overall standings, winning for the second straight weekend to easily outdistance runner-up Laramie County Community College with 690 team points. The Golden Eagles tallied 460.
The Pokes stretched their CRMR lead to 3,415 points with just three rodeos left in the season. Gillette College hung on to second place, but now trails UW by 175 points. Casper College remains third at 2,930 points.
The Cowgirls put together their best performance of the two-semester season, winning for the first time this spring with 560 points. LCCC was a distant second with 240 points.
More importantly, the UW women solidified its second-place standing in the region with 1,937.5 points to inch closer to season-long leader Gillette College, which sits first with 2,448.33 points. Only the top two teams in the region earn automatic bids to the CNFR.
"I am really proud of our teams — they have been firing on all cylinders through the first two rodeos of the spring season," UW head Coach Seth Glause said. "One of our keys for success has been our student-athletes capitalizing on Sundays. It's important to be able to get average and short go points when we have the opportunities."
UW's Rio Nutter was the all-around champion over the weekend for the men's team, and Kenna McNeill led the Cowgirls with the all-around women's title.
For the men:
— Nutter led the way with a pair of second-place finishes in two separate events. He won the tie-down roping's short go to finish as the event's runner-up, and then returned later with partner Reece Wadhams of LCCC to place second in the team roping average on the strength of the short go round's best time.
— David Gallagher strung together two solid runs in steer wrestling, opening with the second-best time. He later won the short go to give him the win in the average.
— Saratoga's Kaden Berger added to the points team's output with a third-place finish in steer wrestling.
— Cam Jensen placed fourth in the tie-down competition with a pair of steady runs.
— Brice Patterson placed for the second straight weekend on his road to recovery from injury. He placed fourth in bareback riding.
Other UW Cowboys not on the weekend points team also had a good weekend of competition, with two winning their respective events. Gillette's Stratton Kohr won the calf roping competition with a pair of solid runs; Weston Mills, also from Gillette, and partner Coy Johnson from Gillette College, were the top team ropers at EWC; Karson Ewing, of Douglas, placed fifth in steer wrestling; and Colton Farrow, of Greybull, was fifth in bareback riding.
For the women:
— McNeill paced the Cowgirls, winning one individual event and placing third in another. The senior placed in two rounds of barrel racing to win her specialty event, and then she used a strong short go round to place third in goat tying.
— Josie Mousel placed in a pair of events. She had two sharp goat tying runs to finish as the runner-up, and she added sixth-place points in the breakaway roping average.
— Landry Haugen had the third-best breakaway roping times in the opening and short go rounds, but they were good enough to propel her to second in the average.
Other UW Cowgirls not on the points team also placed during the weekend rodeo. Thermopolis' Emme Norsworthy placed for the first time this spring, finishing as the barrel racing runner-up to McNeill. Sage Kohr, of Gillette, gave the Cowgirls the top three in the event when she placed third. Hailey Hardeman, of Jackson, was fifth in the breakaway roping competition.
Action in the CRMR will pause this weekend for the Easter break and will resume April 5-7 for Colorado State's rodeo.
"I am excited for a week off for our athletes to recuperate, then we are back at it in two weeks with three weeks of rodeo to finish the season," Glause said. "I look forward to a strong finish by both of our teams."
