Two Wyoming Rodeo Team Members on the Board at CNFR

Two of five University of Wyoming team members managed to mark and score successful times in the opening “Broncs, Bulls and Breakaway” event to open the College National Finals Rodeo Sunday in Casper.

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The opening competition was just for the roughstock competitors and women’s breakaway ropers, which ended the first of three rounds for the competitors.

It was a tough opening round for the five UW teammates on the opening day, with just bareback rider Colton Farrow, of Greybull, and Buffalo’s Jordyn McNamee jumping into a chance to advance during the week and a possible bid for Saturday’s short go.

For Farrow, it was a nerve-wracking afternoon. He originally was set to compete early in the first session of bareback riding, but his horse was not quick to buck, which drew a low score for Farrow. He was awarded a re-ride, and he originally was scheduled to come back early in the afternoon session, but all re-rides were moved to the end of the day, leaving Farrow with a more than two-hour wait.

He ended up with a 70-point ride but, he says, at least he marked on the opening day and knows that his second ride Tuesday will be on a good horse. He was this season’s Central Rock Mountain Region (CRMR) champion.

“I kind of had to sit around -- it’s tough to keep yourself warmed up and not get too cooled off,” Farrow says. “The second horse was better for sure than the first one. I felt like I did my job as best as I could.”

In her second CNFR appearance of her UW career, McNamee managed to get a clean toss of her rope over her calf’s head in the late afternoon session, stopping the clock in 2.9 seconds in breakaway roping, putting her 16th in the early average. The top 12 competitors in each of the men’s and women’s events earn short go bids Saturday night.

She says she knows how hard it is in the first round of competition because the calves are not run in a competitive setting when ropers have a chance to scout the animals the day before. McNamee says she knew the calf would not start out very fast coming out of the chute, and then from there he would break into a faster speed, according to the scouting report.

“I got by him in good shape, but it doesn’t matter if you don’t rope him good and score, so I was just happy to score,” she says about getting a mark on her first of three runs this week. “The first one is arguably the hardest, for me anyway. I got my first one under my belt. There are some calves that you just can’t be that fast on, and that’s what I kind of drew today. So hopefully I can draw faster ones later this week.”

Landry Haugen, of Sturgis, S.D., was the first overall UW competitor up during Sunday’s competition, and it was a 90-minute wait from the beginning of the 1 p.m. session when the UW women’s team member entered the breakaway roping box. It was not the start the Cowgirls team was looking for. Haugen, the CRMR regular-season breakaway roping champion, had a no-time in the opening round, as she could not get her rope over the calf’s head.

The bulls had the upper hand in the opening two sessions of Broncs, Bulls and Breakaway, with just five contestants completing an 8-second ride. It was a quick end for both of UW’s two bull riders.

Emmit Ross, of Jackson, was launched high off the back of Rooster Jack in just 3.4 seconds. He entered this week’s CNFR as the defending CRMR regular season bull riding champion.

In the early opening session, Stefan Tonita, from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, was tossed hard by Night Trip in just 2.4 seconds.

Tonita was among the seven UW men’s CNFR qualifiers but was not selected to the Cowboys’ six-man points team roster. He earned a bid to the finals by finishing third in the CRMR this past season.

McNamee is one of two UW women’s CNFR qualifiers not on this week’s four-member points team. She qualified as the No. 3 roper in the region.

The majority of the 13 UW finals qualifiers will compete Monday in the first of two slack sessions. The first of five nightly performances begins Tuesday.

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