Northern cowboys and cowgirls ride at home

After a few weeks on the road, the Montana State University-Northern rodeo teams finally got the chance to ride in front of their home crowd this weekend on the Biggert Better Barn at the Great Northern Fairgrounds. In the week before the rodeo, the MSU-N riders dealt with adversity with some of them getting hurt. Despite this, MSU-N head coach Doug Kallenberger believes his team performed well.

"I couldn't be more proud," Kallenberger said. "We just had a lot of adversity this week and the kids just put it all aside and just got the job done. I just couldn't be more proud of them."

The MSU-N women's team performed well with a score of 235 to place second in the rodeo behind Montana State University. University of Montana Western came in third behind the Skylights. The MSU-N men's team took third in their rodeo behind first-place Miles City Community College and second-place MSU.

For the first time this season, MSU-N had three riders take first place in their competitions over the weekend. Garrett Cunningham took first in the saddle bronc competition with a score of 124. In the long go, he took first with a score of 66 and he took first in the short go with a score of 58.

Mikenna Schauer took first in the goat tying event with a total time of 12.9 seconds. After she placed sixth in the long go with a time of 6.6 seconds, Schauer improved in the short go to take first with a time of 6.3 seconds.

Rope Three Irons also took first for MSU-N. Along with his partner Taggart Hammons of Northwest College, he took first in the team roping with a total time of 16.6 seconds. In the short go, they took first with a time of 4.5 seconds. With this being their only rodeo at home this season, the home crowd should be more than satisfied with how MSU-N performed.

"It was amazing to see the crowd and then see the support that the community gave the team," Kallenberger said. "We haven't managed to get three main champions in one rodeo yet and to do it in front of our hometown crowd was pretty special."

Other MSU-N riders had success this weekend. Lincoln Yarama took second in tie down roping with a total time of 22.1 seconds. Chance Story took fifth in tie down roping. Callahan Otoupalik took fourth in breakaway roping with a total time of 9.3 seconds.

Sage Kohr of MSU won the breakaway roping event while MSU's Caleb Berquist took first in tie down roping with a total time of 20.9 seconds. Kaleb Norstrom took first in bareback riding with a total score of 148. MSU riders also won steer wrestling and barrel racing as Kolby Currin won steer wrestling with a total time of 8.9 seconds and Shai McDonald won barrel racing with a time of 26.35 seconds. MSU's Shelby Rasmussen was named the best all-around women's rider this weekend while Cole Trexler and Daylon Danks of MCC were named best all-around men's riders this weekend.

The MSU-N rodeo teams now only have one more rodeo this fall before they have their midseason break. They will next compete this weekend in a rodeo at UMW in Dillon. With their performance this past weekend and all the adversity they faced, Kallenberger feels confident with where his riders are at.

"It was just a great confidence builder. Shows me the maturity of these kids in that mindset of even the incoming freshmen. That they can block things out for one round or one ride. The pain, the heartbreak or whatever they're dealing with, they can just block it out," Kallenberger said.

MSU-N rodeo will next compete in the UMW rodeo in Dillon this Friday and Saturday to end the fall portion of their 2021-22 season.