Both the UW men’s and women’s rodeo teams are in the lead spots for the Central Rocky Mountain Region (CRMR) divisions.
The Cowboy’s rodeo team won its third consecutive team title of the spring season last week. At the same time, the Cowgirls came back from a low score event the week before to complete a UW sweep at the Eastern Wyoming College (EWC) rodeo in Torrington.
“The program’s success over the past two weekends is a reflection of the commitment, dedication and work ethic of all 54 student-athletes in the program,” UW Coach Beau Clark said in a statement to the media.
“Our student-athletes are an impressive group of young people who are driven to achieve their goals. Right now, our team is doing a great job in the classroom, supporting each other and winning at the rodeos,” Clark said.
The success of the program has securely placed both UW teams in the lead with only three CRMR events left this season.
The Cowboys widened their regional lead with a more than 200-point victory over runner-up Casper College at the EWC competition.
At the end of the event, UW scored 740 points. Beating second place runner-up Casper College by 210 points.
With the latest win, the UW men have 5,128.5 points in the team standings, and second-place Gillette College has 3,702. With just the top two teams in the region securing automatic bids to June’s College National Finals Rodeo in Casper, the host T-Birds are sitting in third place in the CRMR with 3,128.5 points.
At the same event, the Cowgirls won the team title, scoring 340.3 points. Managing to edge out Chadron State College by 14.7 points.
The Cowgirls lead the regional standings with 2,379.59 points, while the Chadron State team stayed in the runner-up position with 1,485.84 points.
“I couldn’t be happier how everyone did over the weekend,” Clark said. “We just have so many good kids, and it’s not just the ones on the points teams. They all had a great weekend.”
With seven of the 10 CRMR competitions done, the Cowboys and Cowgirls look towards trying to maintain their lead with the last three events of the season.
“Every event is important,” steer wrestler Seth Peterson said. “We would have been in the lead [for the CRMR] regardless of how Eastern went. But winning at any event is awesome and we need to keep that mindset moving forward.”
The late season held by both divisions is going to become especially important as UW looks for its third consecutive CRMR title.
The CRMR is taking a two-week break, with the next event scheduled April 16-18 for the annual Ropin’ and Riggin’ Days Rodeo hosted by Casper College.
“It is a fun group to be around, and I am looking forward to the next couple of weeks of practice before we go to Casper College’s rodeo,” Clark said.
