Rodeo club finishes fall season at UVU, men shine
USU’s Rodeo team wrapped up the fall semester season with a rodeo at Utah Valley University, over the weekend, on a positive note. Looking to go out with a bang, the Aggies finally put up numbers and gained much-needed points.
The men’s team went into the rodeo at second place — a spot it has maintained for most of the season — and the women’s team went in at sixth place.
Most notable in regional standings, accounting for all rodeos, from the men’s team were brothers Kyler and Jace Austin. The brothers are leading the tie down roping with Jace Austin sitting in first and Kyler Austin second. In team roping, the duo sits seventh and eighth, respectively, in points.
Jace Austin is the current leader in the steer wrestling, going into the weekend, and is also sitting first in the men’s all around point, which combines a single competitor’s points from a number of events he participates in. Jace Austin brings in points every rodeo and continues to be a staple for the USU Rodeo Team.
After a frustrating fall season the women’s team finally broke through to the final round this weekend.
“It is three or four weeks into the rodeo season, and it takes a few weeks to get into the swing of things,” said Kate Clissold, rodeo club president. “You tune up every week and look to improve every week.”
Three Aggie women reached the short go, most notably Lacy Larsen. In goat tying Larsen returned to the final round, placing sixth in the average, good enough to collect much needed points. Larsen was the lone Aggie woman to return in the hometown rodeo and continues to work hard to accumulate points for the team.
“We ended on a positive. We sent a lot of men and three women to the short go — it was an improvement over the last week for sure,” Clissold said.
Struggling with consistency and focus at the home rodeo two weekends ago, the USU rodeo men’s team looked to rebound from the disappointment. Relieved of the pressure of performing in front of the hometown crowd, the men’s team returned to its top form of past rodeos, not dwelling on the past.
Aggie team roper Jake “Sunshine” Wanner and Weber State University partner Taylor Christensen pulled through to place second in the average. After slipping a leg on a fast steer in the first round, Wanner and Christensen ended up going into the second round sitting at fifth. The second round was a better draw and Wanner roped the two heels cleanly.
After a season of ups and downs, Wanner reflects on this fall semester with mixed feelings. Wanner looks forward to the break between fall and spring semesters, to work on consistency and roping as many steers as he can.
“This season hasn’t been the greatest,” Wanner said. “We had a hard time putting runs together.”
Though the season has not been as fulfilling as he wanted, Wanner said he’s happy to go out with a point placing and looks to continue the success into spring semester.
One Aggie who struggled this weekend was saddle bronc rider Ken Lym. Lym currently sits atop the saddle bronc regional standings but bucked off both horses this weekend. Being the only rough stock rider from Utah State, Lym represents the team well, always trying his hardest to post points. Although it didn’t happen for him this weekend.
Going into the six-month break, the rodeo team will focus on putting runs together as a team and making it to the short round more often. Placing in the top six in the short round is rewarded with points that help the team in regional placing as well as individual rankings.
“We all have our goals that we are going to work on and start out stronger this spring,” Clissold said.
The Rodeo team returns to action the first weekend in March, with a rodeo at Weber State University.
– mega.bodi@aggiemail.usu.edu