LARAMIE — A perfect fall season turned in by the University of Wyoming women’s rodeo team solidified the Cowgirls as the team to beat when the spring schedule rolls around next March.
The Cowgirls went 4 for 4 in the fall season with a second-straight dominating performance to end competition in the Central Rocky Mountain Region (CRMR) last weekend. Meanwhile, the men’s team, despite finishing second, widened its overall regional lead after the completion of the fall schedule at Lamar (Colorado) Community College’s (LCC) home rodeo.
During the LCC rodeo, the Cowgirls strung together 450 points, more than doubling runner-up Colorado State University’s (CSU) second-place team points of 210; Central Wyoming College was third with 185.
Through the four fall rodeos, the Cowgirls amassed 1,525 points, with only one other school in the region breaking 500 team points. CSU, with 540 points, trails the Cowgirls by 935 points, while Chadron State College is third in the overall CRMR standings with 460 points.
With its win at the LCC rodeo with 730 points, the Gillette College men are in second place in the regional standings. But the UW men were a close second at Lamar with a solid 705 points to improve on their overall lead. After four rodeos, the Pokes have 3,095 points — a 750-point lead over the Pronghorns.
Casper College put up 510 points at LCC for third place, with the Thunderbirds holding onto that position in the CRMR with 1,940 total points. The UW men won two of the four fall rodeos and finished second twice.
Not all collegiate teams are competing during the fall season because of COVID-19 concerns, but that has not stopped most of the nation’s teams from competing. In the latest National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association standings through three weekends of action, the UW men lead the national standings in team scoring, with a 100-point lead over Montana State University. The UW women are sixth in the overall national standings.
Both the UW women and men will be gunning for their third consecutive CRMR team titles — in coach Beau Clark’s three seasons at the helm — when the spring season picks up next March.
Cowgirl Faith Hoffman from Kiowa, Colorado, won two of the three women’s events at the LCC rodeo. Hoffman continued her dominating performance in goat tying, winning her specialty event for the third straight weekend. She also came through with a strong short go round in breakaway roping to win the average. She accounted for 285 of the team’s total output.
Hoffman, who won the all-around title at LCC, leads the region in goat tying and is fifth overall in breakaway roping.
Two of her teammates added 165 more points as the Cowgirls completed the seasonlong team title sweep.
Taylour Latham of Lapoint, Utah, split the opening round of goat tying and settled for fifth in the average. She trails Hoffman in the overall goat tying standings. Teammate Kelsey Lensegrav of Interior, South Dakota, qualified for the goat tying short go and placed third, putting her in that same position in the average.
All six Cowboys on the UW men’s points team combined for the club’s second-place finish, marking the first time all season the entire team scored during a weekend rodeo. A pair of UW men were multiple-event place winners.
— Jase Staudt of Nathrop, Colorado, turned in a pair of top three runs in tie-down roping to place as the event’s runner-up in the average. Staudt also was fourth in team roping with partner JC Flake, of Gillette College. The pair is the top team roping duo in the region. Staudt led the Pokes in scoring with 220 individual points.
— Teammate Austin Hurlburt of Norfolk, Nebraska, placed in three separate events and was fourth in the average in all three to score 185 individual points. He scored points in tie-down roping, steer wrestling and team roping with his UW partner Seth Peterson of Minot, North Dakota. Hurlburt is ranked third in tie-down roping, and Peterson is second in the region.
— Peterson also split sixth in the calf roping average to add 120 points to the team’s output.
— Kemmerer’s red-hot Donny Proffit continued his seasonlong hold of the region’s bareback riding event when he won the event at LCC, giving him three straight top finishes to close out the season.
— Garrett Uptain of Craig, Colorado, scored 20 points in saddle bronc riding, but he did not place in the average. He will head into the spring season as the region’s No. 2 rider in the event.
— And Chadron Coffield of Yuma, Colorado, closed out the team’s scoring with a handful of points in steer wrestling, but he did not place in the average. He is fourth overall in that event and is the region’s top calf roper.
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