UW Cowboys Aim High on Regional, National Levels

Sept. 28, 2005 -- New year, same goal: Win the College National Finals Rodeo (CNFR) championship. Anything less than that will again be a disappointment for the University of Wyoming men’s team.

The last three seasons the Cowboys have finished in the top five nationally twice and came one place from the top 10 a year ago. Last season coach George Howard touted his Cowboys as the best and deepest team in his eight years at UW, but bad luck seemed to bite the club at last June’s CNFR.

Three of the Cowboys’ top performers during the regular season just missed qualifying for the national short go round, leaving UW with a trio of ropers in the finals and no real chance to reach their season-long goal to win it all.

“I really can’t complain about how we finished last year. We just didn’t have any luck at all,” Howard says as he prepares his ninth UW team for this weekend’s fall opener at Chadron (Neb.) State College. “We have the people in place to do it (win a national title), we just need to have luck on our side. We have used up all the bad luck and all that is left is good luck, right&?rdquo;

With a new national scoring system in place, Howard says his men’s team should score high in all rodeos this season. Points now will be awarded to the top six in each individual event, compared to four places in previous seasons. Sixty points will be given to first place and 10 points less in descending order to the next five place winners.

Not only does Howard feel his club can win the Central Rocky Mountain Region (CRMR) title for the second straight season, but that a national title is a realistic goal, too. His reasoning -- five of the six men selected for the team this weekend are CNFR qualifiers from a year ago, including a pair of Cowboys who are defending regional champions in their specialty events.

The club is lead by senior saddle bronc rider Billie Sutton, the CRMR’s defending all-around cowboy, and junior team roper Justin Viles, who was the national leader going into last season’s CNFR short go until a no-time in the finals ended his hopes of taking the top prize.
Sutton, a finance senior from Burke, S.D., is closing in all the Cowboys’ all-time scoring list, trailing bareback rider Sam Nordick’s 2,055 career points by just 57 points. Sutton also competes in steer wrestling and team roping.

Viles, a finance junior from Cody, was last season’s top heeler among the region’s team ropers. He also competes in calf roping and was the CRMR’s runner-up in that event.

Expected to compete this weekend for the Cowboys are defending team roping regional runner-up A.J. Franzen, a Sidney, Mont., junior; his cousin Henry Hollenbeck, an agricultural business senior from Fort Morgan, Colo., who was third in the region last season in steer wrestling; and regional bareback runner-up Zack Curran, a Central Wyoming College transfer student and a current range management junior from Arvada, Colo. The sixth member of the club is Clayton Morrison, a civil engineering senior from Killdeer, S.D.

In all, the six-member team will compete 15 different times in the men’s events. Franzen also will compete in steer wrestling; Hollenbeck in both roping events; and Morrison in both roping events and steer wrestling.

“With any luck at all, these guys will blow them (the competition) away this year,” Howard says. He adds that the key to this year’s club is depth. “I’ve got somebody else’s team because we’ve got six or eight other guys who could be starters at other colleges.”

If the men’s goal is to win the national title, then the UW Cowgirls’ strategy is to get back to respectability. For the first time in nearly 20 years, the Cowgirls failed to qualify for the CNFR last season, breaking UW’s string of top 10 national finishes.

“We have made some changes and I’m more confident with this group,” Howard says. “On paper we look good, but we have to see what the other colleges have.”

Lori Amick was the lone Cowgirl to qualify for the CNFR last season and led the team in scoring. The zoology junior from Wessington Springs, S.D., competes in barrel racing and will lead the four-member Cowgirl team into the first weekend of action. Joining her will be highly-touted freshman Nikki Steffes from Vale, S.D.

Steffes, a pre-med major, finished fourth in the all-around at the national high school rodeo and swept two events at the summer Little Britches national event, while also winning the all-around title.

“She competes in all the events. She’s a Sunni Fish-type competitor,” Howard says, referring to the Cowgirls’ all-time scoring leader.

The other two spots on the women’s team will be up for grabs this weekend. Howard will choose from among veterans Michelle Malone, an audiology sophomore from Keenesburg, Colo.; Lindylu Evridge, an agricultural business senior from Lemmon, S.D.; Rehme Sutton (Billie’s sister), a pharmacy sophomore from Burke, S.D.; and Kari Mueller, a kinesiology and health promotion/athletic training junior from Belgrade, Mont. Also in the mix is CRMR all-around runner-up Kayla Nelson, a Sheridan College transfer, from Buffalo, S.D., who is a junior in child development.

Posted on Wednesday, September 28, 2005