Your future, our focus
BY MARK DAVIS TRIBUNE SPORTS WRITER
Courtesy of the Powell Tribune
powelltribune.photoshelter.com
Del Nose is excited about the Trapper rodeo team this year. In the coming weeks, as more team members become available and first year students get some experience, the head coach is hopeful his team can move up in the rankings in the Big Sky Region.
Northwest College hosted the Trapper Stampede Rodeo — the region’s first competition of the 2021-2022 season — on Saturday and Sunday. The men came away with a fourth-place finish on day one and a second-place finish on the second day.
“When you can bring a freshman team in there and do as well as we did, that’s a pretty good little feat,” said Nose. He noted that NWC is also the only two-year school in the region.
After the first week of action, the men are rated No. 4 in the conference and hoping to move up. Several Trappers are rated in the top 10.
Paden Woolstenhulme is rated No. 2 in both steer wrestling and as team roping header; Hagen Wallace is the No. 2 team roping heeler; and Logan Smith is rated No. 8 in tie down roping.
Woolstenhulme is also rated No. 5 in the men’s all-around ratings. If it wasn’t for a stubborn steer, he might be higher in the standings. Woolstenhulme posted a time of 20.1 seconds in steer wrestling on Saturday as his steer resisted turning. He got the job done, but was noticeably frustrated. On Sunday, however, he scored 7.5, finishing in second place. He and Wallace also tied for second in team roping during Sunday’s action with a time of 6.9 seconds.
The NWC women’s team failed to score in either event, which Nose blamed on early season jitters.
“We’ve got some talent,” he said, “but we just didn’t get it together this past weekend.”
Nose also is looking forward to seeing two cowboys compete who have yet to see action, but “have a lot of promise.”
Sylus York, a UNLV transfer student whose currently out of action due to transfer penalty rules, should be “very, very competitive,” Nose said. And Spencer Gordon will be ready for next week’s rodeo.
“We’re looking for good things out of him,” the coach said of Gordon.
The team heads to the Dawson Community College Rodeo grounds in Glendive, Montana, this weekend for a Friday-Saturday event, and then has the Montana State University Northern Rodeo on the schedule for Sept. 24-25.