Women’s rodeo is back in the saddle following a fifth place finish at the College Nationals Final Rodeo (CNFR).
Last year’s team, amongst other record setting performances, saw their first national champion, with then senior Mckenna Clingman winning the goat tying event. Outside of the individual national champion, the squad was tabbed as the nation’s best in late March last season. This year, however, the vow for a national title will have to look a little different.
“Last year, we as a women’s team led the whole region, start to finish, the whole year across, and just really dominated. This year, while we’re having some success, it’s much more of a grind it out, take your small victories and keep battling,” said head coach Branden Edwards.
Following the final rodeo of the fall season, Colorado Mesa University (CMU) sits at third place in the Rocky Mountain Region. Along with that, no Maverick leads an individual category in any event, but both barrel racing and goat tying see a Mav in the top five.
“Our first rodeo actually started really, really well. After losing [Clingman] last year, our team really bounced off of that. In goat tying, we had five girls make it to the short go. Out of every single person that competes in the long go, they only take the top 10, and we had five of them,” said junior Wylee Mitchell.
Mitchell, the unanimously elected captain, is currently fourth in the region in barrel racing, and also checks in at 10th regionally in goat tying. Nationally, the Mavs see themselves at seventh overall, logging 1,056.66 points.
She is currently second in the region in that event. //Courtesy of Wylee Mitchell
“I know I was a little bit worried, like [Clingman] was such a big supporter and motivator for the team last year, so I was a little bit worried going into this year, but really, everybody’s there for the same reason, and we’re all focusing on improving ourselves and lifting each other up. I know in sports it can be hard, especially like in our sport, we’re all competing against each other. We all want to win, so I think it can get a little tricky there, but the team atmosphere Overall this year has been really good,” said Mitchell.
Out of the five rodeos the Mavs attended this fall, they were able to grab a top three finish in three of them, with an average of 287.22 points per top three finish. In last year’s fifth place finish, the team totalled 307.5 points.
With the loss of both Clingman and barrel racer Izzy Yama last year, CMU is looking to rebuild half of their national team. Yama’s run to nationals was rather surprising as well, as she missed the fall 2023 portion of the season due to injury.
“That’s been kind of fun to see how they’ve operated in that as we go forward, and I think the great part is you still see students that are really hungry for it, even after having the success last year,” said Edwards.
Senior Justice Jones has been putting up big numbers for the Mavericks this season as well. Hailing from High River, Alberta, Canada, Jones checks in second regionally for goat tying, along with being fourth in the nation.
“I think really committing themselves to the process, really committing themselves to know that it’s a lot of little actions and never just one big thing that happens. As far as the preparation side of things go, they’re really willing to take constructive criticism. They’re very willing to be able to analyze their own performances, and not just be happy with where they’re at. They’re very willing to look at what could push them to a higher level, what things that they can tweak and adjust,” said Edwards.
Rodeo is especially challenging considering its unique travel practices. While most teams will have a variation of home and away contests, rodeo only has one home contest. With the odd travel schedule, the team makes academics a big point when they’re not on the road.
“For the sake of our team, anytime we’re on the road, we have animals to care for. All of our students have to drive themselves because they take their rig. So there really isn’t the opportunity for them to get homework done on the bus ride, you know, back. So you really do lose that entire weekend of time,” said Edwards.
Women’s rodeo will have the rest of the fall and winter off, before heading to Twin Falls, Idaho to compete in the College of Southern Idaho Rodeo on March 7. The Mavs will host their sole home rodeo on April 11, at the Mesa County Fairgrounds.