About 75 percent of the athletes have competed already at the National Western Stock Show and Rodeo in Denver.
This year, the National Western Stock Show and Rodeo will feature a tournament-style format featuring 80 contestants per event – bareback riding, steer wrestling, team roping (heading and heeling), saddle bronc riding, tie-down roping, barrel racing and bull riding.
Each contestant will compete in the first two rounds, competing in back-to-back performances/sets, with round 1 being the first performance of a set and round 2 being the second performance of a set. The top 24 in the average will advance to the semifinals.
The semifinals have three brackets (performances) taking place on Saturday, Jan. 25, where each athlete will begin with a clean slate of times/scores. The top four athletes in each event from the semifinals brackets will advance to the finals on Sunday, Jan. 26.
The contestants in the finals will again start with a clean slate of times/scores. The highest-scored ride or fastest time in the championship round will be crowned champion.
So far, there have been six qualifying performances/sets, meaning about 60 athletes have competed in each event.
Bareback Riding
Three-time world champion Tim O’Connell remains in first place in bareback riding after six sets. No one has been able to top the Iowa cowboy’s total score of 175.5, which came thanks to rides of 88 and 87.5 O’Connell is currently in first place by seven points.
Garret Shadbolt notched a score of 168.5 in the second set and has held steady in second place since O’Connell overtook him on Saturday night.
2019 Wrangler NFR Qualifier Richmond Champion is in third with 167.5, Spur Lacasse is behind Champion at 167 and Chad Rutherford and Chance Ames are tied for fifth with scores of 166.5 each.
Saddle Bronc Riding
Jesse Kruse rode New West Rodeo Productions’ Moderation for an 86, the best first-round score of the rodeo so far, in his first round on Wednesday but was bucked off in his second-round ride on Wednesday night.
Parker Fleet also scored an 86 Wednesday, his coming in the second round after being bucked off during his first ride.
Kobyn Williams is in first place with a total score of 168.5, Leon Fountain is second with 166.5, Ryder Wright is third with 166, Chet Johnson is currently in fourth with a score of 163.5, Ty Manke is fifth with 160.
Barrel Racing
Through six sets, Tillar Murray leads the way in Barrel Racing.
She had a ride of 14.97 seconds her first round, which was Friday evening. She followed that up with a second-round time of 15.00 on Saturday morning.
Jimmie Smith’s total qualifying time was 30.20, just behind Murray’s 29.97. Ivy Hurst, who has the second best first round ride so far at 15.03 seconds, is in third with a total time of 30.34, Tiany Schuster and Jill Tanner are in fourth at a time of 30.73 each and Karson Bradley is sixth with 30.74.
Bull Riding
The bull riders only lasted eight seconds on three of the 18 rides Wednesday, meaning there was little movement on the leaderboard. Jimy Marten had the best score of the day with an 84 in his second round ride.
Toby Collins is still in first place after he totaled 174 points in his two rides.
Collins has the only 90-point ride of the rodeo and it came on Cervi Championship Rodeo’s Rawhide in the second round.
Clayton Sellars, who is in second overall, has the second best time of the second round so far with an 86-point ride. Sellars has 171 points, placing him and Collins well ahead of the rest of the field.
Shad Winn has 158 points and is in third, Coy Pollmeier is in fourth with 157.5, Cordell Curtis is fifth with 154 and Boudreaux Campbell is sixth with 143 points.
Steer Wrestling
There was no movement in the steer wrestling leaderboard as the top qualified times remain the same.
Jace Melvin is holding onto first place with an aggregate time of 8.2 seconds on two head.In second is Jacob Edler with a total time of 8.8 seconds. Stetson Jorgensen remains in third place with an aggregate time of 9.2 seconds.
Cade Goodman still holds onto fourth place after putting up a total time of 9.3 seconds on two head. Goodman sits atop the world standing early in the 2020 season with earnings just over $8,000.Laine Herl and Dirk Tavenner are in a tie for fifth place with a time of 9.9 seconds.
Team Roping
The team roping leaderboard also remains unchanged after Wednesday’s performances.
Kade Smith and Levi Tyan are in first place with an aggregate time of 9.7 seconds on two head.
There is a tie for second between Cody Snow/Paul Eaves tied with Brenten Hall/Chase Tryan. Both teams put up an aggregate time of 10.3 seconds.
In fourth place are Coy Rahlmann and Ryan Von Ahn with a time of 10.4 seconds.
The pair has the fifth-best Round 1 time and the fourth-best Round 2 time so far.
Clay Tryan and Jake Long have an aggregate time of 10.5 seconds, good enough for fifth place. Charley Crawford and Logan Medlin have the final qualifying ride and sit in sixth place after putting up a total time of 10.6 seconds.
Tie-Down Roping
The top 5 remained the same in tie-down roping after the fifth set with Texas cowboy Ty Harris still in first place.
He has an aggregate time of 15.4 seconds on two head.
Chase Williams remains in seconds place with a posting a time of 16.4 seconds. Westyn Hughes held on to the third spot with a time of 16.6 seconds.
Tyler Milligan is just being Hughes at 16.8 seconds and Ryle Smith is in fifth place with an aggregate time of 17.0 seconds. Buck Tate knocked Stetson Vest out of the Top 6 Wednesday after besting Vest by 0.1 seconds.
Tate, a Texas cowboy, posted an aggregate time of 17.6 seconds.