Your future, our focus
Just when fans of the Northwest College rodeo team thought it couldn't get any better, Trappers upped their game as they head into the National College Finals Rodeo ranked 15th in the nation as a team with the top team ropers on their side.
NWC’s national notoriety
Taken on a national scale, NWC’s Shawn Bird and Zach Schweigert are the only team ropers to break into the thousands for regional points. The local duo tied up the Big Sky Region with 1,040 points followed by the second place team with 975.
“We have never had this before in my tenure here,” coach Del Nose said. “We’ve never had kids first in the nation on the year-end of things.”
“It feels good, it was one of our goals to accomplish and it felt good to do that,” Schweigert said. “I guess that was just our year. We seemed to be able to make our own wherever we went.”
Ricky Warren narrowly made it into the top 25 in the nation for saddle bronc with 636 points and a 24th place rank followed close behind by the 25th-ranked rider with 630 points. Unfortunately, that only placed him fourth in the region so he won’t be heading to the National College Finals Rodeo.
Going big time in the Big Sky Region
Regionally, the NWC men’s team ranked third in the Big Sky Region with 4,720 points to Montana State University’s 5,346 and University of Montana Western’s 5,882.5.
The women’s team ranked fifth with 1,289 points.
Of course, the top team ropers in the country, Bird and Schweigert, also came out on top in the Big Sky Region with more than double the second place score of 555.
But, they weren’t alone in the top 15 for team roping. NWC headers Mason Chaffee ranked ninth with 220 points and Shelby Mann ranked 13th with 165 points. Meanwhile, Trapper heelers Logan Brown ranked eighth with 220 points, Tyler Sterner came in 12th with 165 points and Robert Magpie got 15th with 130 points.
NWC was well-represented in the bull riding with three riders in the top 11. Tyler Sterner ranked second with 270 points, and Fredericks landed third with 240 points, which means they are in it to win it at the finals. Tyler Donnelly was 11th with 40 points.
“I am feeling pretty good,” Sterner said. “It is a big accomplishment and goal I had for myself and feels great to achieve it and make the step forward for the finals.”
“The season went good and I won great bulls,” Fredericks said. “The weekend before last bumped me up in points and got me to sitting in third. It was kind of just what you drew, some were good and some were bad and some were what what they wanted. But, I got on a bull in Missoula that fishtailed and I got bucked at like five seconds.”
NWC finished the regionals with four riders in the top 15 for tie-down roping. Lane Lahaye came in second with 670 points with three of his teammates within eight points of each other. Cody Sheridan ranked 11th with 178 followed by Ricky Warren in 12th with 174 and Logan Brown in 13th with 170.
Lahaye was one of the most improved riders on the team since he was riding a different horse in the fall, Nose said.
“Now that he got her back in the spring, and they bonded and jelled and really come on — he placed in every rodeo in the season,” Nose said. “It makes a difference, he went from fourth to second and got a spot in the finals. That is an eye opener. I didn’t realize this mare existed because she wasn’t there in the fall, but when he got her it was automatic.”
Four out of the top 14 barrel racers in the region hail from NWC. Leading the Trappers was Kelsy Robinson in fourth with 607 points, followed by Shelby Mann in ninth with 276, Taylor Werbelow in 12th with 166 and Rachel Kerr tied for 14th with 100 points.
Warren ranked fourth in the saddle bronc with 636 points.
Skyler Erickson ranked seventh in the bareback riding with 140 points.
Also ranking seventh was Mann in the women’s all-around with 652 points.
Two of the Trapper men ranked in the top 15 for steer wrestling with Marshal Ray in 11th with 210 points followed by Justin Honken with 171 points for 14th.
Half a point was all it took for Mann to keep her spot in ninth for breakaway roping with 211.5 points to the 10th-place rider’s 211.
Two NWC riders ranked in the top 15 for goat tying with Whitney Simmons in 10th with 175 points followed by Marlee Mussmann in 11th with 146.
With regionals at its close, the Trappers are sending five cowboys to the finals in June.
“It is going to take all five to get us up there,” Nose said. “Right now we are No. 15 in the nation and our goal is to beat that. The ultimate goal is to win the finals, but we got a tough road ahead of us with five guys and two teams have six guys. It can be done, just need to take baby steps.”
Saddling up for finals
The collegiate regional season is done, but these student-athletes are heading toward a different type of final exam as the top three cowboys and cowgirls in each event for each region across the country saddle up for the National College Finals Rodeo on June 14-20 in Casper.
Bird and Schweigert will represent NWC in the team roping event at finals and Lahaye will be in the calf roping while Sterner and Fredericks tackle the bull riding event.
“Lane (Lahaye) and his family are boxing calves and he is going to rope all the time up to CNFR time,” Nose said. “Bird and them guys will rope all the time, Lane (Lahaye) has rodeos to go to and the bull riders have rodeos to go to and there are practice bulls too — our bases are pretty well covered.”
Fredericks said he is feeling good and will participate in a bucking horse sale this summer and a pro rodeo before the finals.
“It was a fight in my head,” Fredericks said. “Bull riding is 90 percent mental — I would buck off and get down on myself and just had to stay positive.”
“Right now we are focusing on the positive of having five guys in and we are excited,” Nose said. “With Shawn (Bird) and Zach (Schweigert) leading the nation going in, hopefully they can say they are the national champs. Those guys will practice hard.”
Schweigert affirmed Nose’s statement, saying that he and Bird will be practicing together and on their own in the weeks up to the finals.
“There are a lot of teams down there, so to come out on top would be really neat,” Schweigert said.
Sterner said he will be working on his riding style and technique, particularly with not bending his legs as much and getting his chest out more instead of leaning over, he said.
“I need to get some things ironed out to make it easier for me to ride,” Sterner said. “I kind of have mixed emotions of excitement and nervousness. That will all go away when I see my bull in the chutes. I know I can ride and compete, so I just need to go out there and do that.”
Regional finale in Missoula
Last weekend’s rodeo at University of Montana in Missoula, Montana, was a solid end for the Trapper’s regional season.
The NWC men’s team ranked third at Missoula with 280 points and the women’s team narrowly missed third with 155 points to University of Great Falls’ 160 points.
Two Trapper ladies ranked in the top five for the women’s all-around as Mann ranked fourth with 85 points and Simmons came in fifth with 30.
Jesse Nelson won the bareback event with 139 points and fellow NWC rider Skyler Erickson came in seventh with 63, missing the sixth place position by a single point.
Three of the top eight tie-down ropers hailed from the NWC team. Bird came in fourth with 29.4 followed by Lahaye with 11.3 in fifth and Cody Sheridan in sixth with 35.9.
Those scores might come off as confusing since Lahaye placed in the first round, but missed in the second round, then Bird’s rank was based on the average, Nose said.
The Trappers are losing Bird and Schweigert at the end of the season, but looking ahead at next year’s season, Lahaye shows the most promise, Nose said.
“The bull riders will be solid,” Nose said. “The bareback rider (Nelson) won the last two rodeos and just didn’t have enough points for finals, but he will be solid too. We have a good foundation to build upon so I am really excited about the recruits coming in — I am ready for the next season already.”
Two NWC barrel racers tied for eighth as Simmons brought in a 36.47 and Mann had a 37.88.
NWC had two riders in the top eight for breakaway roping as Mann landed a 7.7 and Kelsy Robinson had a 2.9.
One-tenth of a second difference was all it took for NWC’s Simmons to miss out on the seventh place position in goat tying as she landed a 10.2 to Montana State University’s Laine Patten’s 10.1.