Junior cowboys, cowgirls heat up the Great Northern Arena

The Great Northern Fair has a lot of events scheduled for this week, but one of the mainstays at the fair is always the Havre Junior Rodeo and Wednesday, it once again coincided with the opening of the fair.

The Havre Junior Rodeo featured cowboys and cowgirls from the ages of 4 to 18 and included a number of different events such as pole bending, barrel racing, goat untying, sheep riding, goat tying, breakaway roping, boot racing, team roping and monkey on a rope.

Things kicked off with pole bending and in the 4-8 age group, Addison Conway took home first place, followed by Cayden Chapman. In the next age group, 9-13, Vance Wingard started a strong night with a first-place showing. He finished ahead of second-place finisher Kenzie Kallenberger, who also placed in multiple events. Among the 1- to 18-year-olds, Skylee Dirden won the pole bending, followed by Katelin Harvey, who finished second.

Next up was on the schedule was steer riding and it was Colter Solomon who won the top spot in that event, finishing just ahead of Dusty Henderson, who was second. Aspen Burcham found the winner’s circle in the 4-6 sheep riding. Kilius Bradley finished second. In another event that featured just the youngsters, goat untying, Addison Shelley earned the top spot, with Hayden Strauser putting together a solid performance for second.

In goat tying, Cassie Gibson was first in the 9-13 age group. Kyla Burchard was second. In the same event, in the 14-18 age group, Mary Gibson made her presence felt, winning goat tying. Lexi Swinney also had a strong showing in second.

In breakaway roping, Karson Campbell was the winner for the 9-13 group and right after that, Sasha Anderson was able to capture first place in the boot race, which was for ages 4-6. Kaleb Cole won breakaway roping for the oldest bracket of competitors, followed by Kaden Ereaux.

In one of the final events, barrel racing, Chapman, who finished second in pole bending, finished second again in the 4-8 bracket, finishing behind Royce Strobbe, who was first. Champman also got second in the flag race, finishing just seconds behind Conway, who also won pole bending earlier in the night.

Kallenberger and Wingard, who went head-to-head in poles, did the same in barrels, but this time Kallenberger got the first-place prize and Wingard settled for second. Brittney Cox also put together a strong race to win the 14-18 barrels; Kylie Mukuski finished second.

In team roping, the first-place prize went to Ereaux and Kaden Racine. They beat out Shyla Benzing and Ryan Seaman, who combined to finish second. Also, in the monkey on a rope competition, Cox and Rebecca Stroh came out on top.

The rodeo action will continue tonight at the Great Northern Fair, with The Great Northern Ram Open Rodeo. That will begin tonight at 7. The Cody Four Colors Memorial Bull Riding is set for Friday night, also at 7 p.m.