Ep. 97 - Round 4 National Finals Rodeo Recap 2021
For the crazy schedule, we weren’t able to record at all for Rounds 1 through 3 so we are jumping into everything NFR right off the bat to cover what’s happening. The Miss Rodeo America pageant concluded today and they crowned the 2020 and 2021 Miss Rodeo Colorado Hayley Fredricksen who became the 2022 Miss Rodeo America. A big shoutout to Miss Rodeo Oregon Samantha Henricks for making the Top 10, as well as Miss Rodeo Tennessee. It was also unique, and something we must note, that only one category award went to the Top 5 which was Appearance to Miss Rodeo Colorado. A big thank you to 2020 and 2021 Miss Rodeo America Jordan Tierney for her amazing two year reign during so much adversity. She has another week left, so we are excited to celebrate her for these next six days!
Event Notes
Bareback
One of the most exciting races of December is none other than Jess Pope that we talked of often in our 2020 rodeo recaps because he won the 2020 NFR average. He’s on a roll this year placing first, first and third with 90 point rides on top of that. He has finished a projected* first place after each round. He’s also in the Top Gun award first place standing.
RC Landingham has also done really well, as well as Tim O’Connell and Kaycee Feilds. Kaycee is sitting second in the projected world title with a projected second place in the average. It will be really interesting because oftentimes if you jump out at the start and do well, we’d normally say something along the lines of “just stay on” and get that average money.
However, Kaycee Feilds just tied Bobby Mote for the most round wins in the NFR with 25 and we already know he’ll be beating that this NFR. Jess will have to work really hard to hold off Kaycee for the world title. Tim, on the other hand, hasn’t really had the horsepower that he needs to showcase his talent to make a run for it. Tim’s horse just didn’t do the work tonight that the other horses did to give him the points like RC Landingham’s horse did tonight to lead him to the tie with Kaycee for the Round 4 win.
Steer Wrestling
An exciting sport, it’s the fastest on dirt until breakaway gets in! A tough go for a lot of competitors, it was all over the place with good runs and some misses. Dakota Eldridge had his steer get stuck in his shirt and ripped it open. It was a bummer to see that happen to these guys.
Especially hard was Jacob Talley’s steer that just stopped right out of the chute compared to it’s earlier strong runs. Jacob missed his steer and this was huge for the guy that entered number one in the standings. If he had been a little bit less caught off guard, he may have had a chance to scramble for it right at the end.
Dirk Tavenner has hazed for the past two years and has started off hot. He won both round 1 and 2 before breaking the barrier in round 3. He was four flat today to get himself back on track in this round giving himself a small chunk of money. He’s a contestant that wasn’t necessarily expected but is doing quite well. The added barrier dropped him down in our projected* average from first and now he’s back to ninth. That puts him one hole shy in the projected* for the world title.
That last hole still pays around $6,500 so it really is going to make a huge impact in the steer wrestling. Riley Duvall and Will Lummus split the round. Riley has been very consistent and it was great to see Will get out there and get on track. In talking with Janie Johnson after the round, he mentioned that he needed to fix his riding to help his horse and look at that big difference. Riley is splitting the number one spot in the projected* average with Tristan Martin; this is a very close race. Outside of the projected* average money, there is only $30,000 between 1 and 2.
Team Roping
You often see a team roper try to fish on a rope but it’s not often that it worked and tonight it worked for Tyler Wade! After putting a hickey on for a head rope (figure 8 around the horns), Tyler didn’t give up on the run by dallying and facing up - that would have been flagged as a disqualification for an illegal head catch. He was able to feed some extra rope into the head loop and get it unhooked and then slipped back on in a legal head catch and Trey Yates was right there with his great heel horse to finish it off.
As the announcers said, “I have never seen that actually work.” We have seen a lot of people try from rodeos to jackpots to the BFI. It’s interesting right now in the team roping because Tyler Wade had missed in the second round and they were trying to protect the average. After round 3, there were only seven teams that had roped in all the rounds. That meant that the eighth team and a part of that average money check could have missed one! That’s insane that this is factoring in already!
It’s notoriously hard to team rope in the Thomas & Mack because you run out of arena. The average is what is going to make or break a lot of contestants in a lot of these events.
Also crazy is that Brady Minor and Derek Begay are roping together which is unusual because normally we have Brady with his brother Riley Minor. Both from Washington, they have roped together for numerous NFR’s but Riley broke his leg at the Pendleton Round Up and so Brady is here without his brother. He may actually win the world this year and we can’t help but be bummed that it’s not with Riley but Derek is obviously a worth partner in the team roping!
Driggers and Nogueira are hot and hot with a 4.1 second run to win the round.
Coy Rahlman, fun fact, is the first team roper from Illinois!
Saddle Bronc
Tegan Smith had an 87.5 point ride to kick off the start of the Round 4. He rode Hot Toddy who has been to the NFR 16 times and Tegan is 21 years old and Hot Toddy is 22 years old - the horse was older than the gentleman riding her! Not missing a beat in her older age, Hot Toddy has arena records at Reno Rodeo and Ellensburg as well as a gaggle of other rodeos and events.
A lot of people seemed to be pretty hurt this year and the saddle bronc riders are no different. There is a decent number of people that we don’t know if we are going to see make it through the whole NFR.
Wade Sundell has had a hard time getting into his rhythm but tonight he gets the win! He needed it for his confidence and it was crazy how just relieved he looked to be able to break through tonight with such a big flashy ride. Cody DeMoss also had a great ride with an 86.5 point ride, bookending the top six, which was great to see the veterans do well.
The young guns, not having such a great go. Stetson Wright had another rough ride and while we talked last year about how Stetson was able to feed off of his good energies by competing at both ends of the arena, it’s crazy to see it maybe having an opposite effect. Something seems off and while it could be an injury that we don’t know about or if he’s just exhausted or even a mental hurdle - it’s good to get it going again in the way that he wants too. He clearly isn’t having the NFR that he wants to be having.
Tie Down Roping
Most of the World Champions really showed up with Tuf Cooper, Caleb Smidt, and Shad Mayfield all roping well. Shad even bobbled his hooey and still ended up winning the round with a 7.7 second. After his calf got up in Round 3, he is chasing the day money now in order to go after the consistent Shane Hanchey who is sitting in first.
Both Westyn Hughes had to use catch in catch can and tied the calf without having a rope on them. Haven Meged and Hunter Herrin had to use their second ropes tonight. It was impressive to see them cowboy up and get their second ropes and STILL roped their calves in less than 20 seconds.
Barrel Racing
Emily Miller-Biesel was back on Chongo, who is as cool as a cucumber heading down the alley. The racing was close with a 13.61, 13.63, and 13.63 and then Wenda Johnson ran a 13.46. That stocky brown horse of hers was so tight on the barrel pattern and that’s exactly what she needed for the round win.
These barrel racers are so terrifyingly good that this is going to be a very tight race and while Hailey Kinsel still holds the drivers seat position, it’s going to be a long week of rodeo to get to the finals. Wendy is right there and her little colt might be firing up and figuring out the Thomas & Mack.
Hailey is still in the projected* lead by about $7K dollars over Dona Kay Rule. Hailey is in the 8th place of the average race but if someone bumps her out of it, that will change it up.
Bull Riding
JB Mauney has made the bull riding so exciting this year with the race for the world title. He’s at his first NFR but he’s a former PBR champion and we just love seeing him do what he does best! With that being said, after splitting the Round 1 win, it was a terrifying Round 2 night where JB got lit up. He did pass concussion protocol and he was back on for Round 3 but it didn't last long.
We are watching four contestants closely:
Creek Young, the young gun that won Round 3 after taking a re-ride.
Sage Kimzey, the six time world champion
JB Mauney from the PBR
Parker Breding from Montana
Parker has been to the NFR quite a few times and has been very consistent this year.
If you have a contestant that you want us to figure out what has to happen for them to win, shoot us a message on any of our social media platforms. Parker and Dustin Bouquet tied tonight for first place at 84.5 points and they were the only two people to ride tonight. This brings into effect Ground Money which resulted in $43,544 to each cowboy. This could change up the world race.
Sage Kimzey is definitely hurting pretty bad, as is JB Mauney. Thoughts and prayers to them to stay safe while out there.
Breakaway Roping Kicks off Monday, December 5th!
**Projected means our unofficial calculated average added to their current monies earned if the rodeo were to end after this round.