Women’s rodeo storms back into second

Posted 4/26/12

The Trapper women scored 403 points, outpacing Montana State University to capture the team title. Steffani Hofrichter was the women’s all-around champion of the rodeo for Northwest College.

“Steffani was locked in,” Nose said. “She won …

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Women’s rodeo storms back into second

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Title at Big Sky region puts team back in national finals positionAfter momentarily dropping back to third place in the Big Sky region’s rodeo standings, the Northwest College women roared back into position to automatically qualify for the College National Finals Rodeo with a championship finish last weekend in Helena, Mont.“The women just jumped up and man were they dialed in,” said Trapper head coach Del Nose. “My god, they were on.”

The Trapper women scored 403 points, outpacing Montana State University to capture the team title. Steffani Hofrichter was the women’s all-around champion of the rodeo for Northwest College.

“Steffani was locked in,” Nose said. “She won the breakaway. She was second in goat tying. She had 271 points for the weekend.”

Heather Knerr, Jessica Ehlers and Kaela Murphy added a 5-6-7 finish for the Trappers in breakaway roping. Knerr was also eighth in the final barrel race standings. Murphy was third with Trapper men’s team member Zachary Schweigert in the team roping competition.

On the men’s side, Northwest College finished in a tie for fourth place alongside Dawson Community College. Both schools finished with 428 points. Miles Community College and the University of Montana, Western split the weekend title with scores of 585.

“There wasn’t a lot of spread between the top five teams. They were all packed up there pretty tight,” said Nose.

Tyler Owens finished second in bull riding to provide the Trapper men with their best individual finish of the weekend. Newt Novich added a third-place showing in the steer wrestling and Clinton Griffis was fourth in the bareback competition.

“We had a heck of a weekend, and not just on one side of the fence, but on both sides,” Nose said refering to the Trapper men’s and women’s teams. “Even the guys and gals that aren’t on the team are doing well and taking points away from everyone else there, so that’s good.”

Buoyed by their championship performance, the Trapper women shot back into second place in the regional standings. With two rodeos to go in the regular season, the Trapper women have 1,752 team points and hold a 362.25-point lead over their closest pursuer, the University of Montana, Western, who failed to score a single team point in Helena.

Montana State University leads the Big Sky region standings. The top two schools at season’s end automatically qualify for the CNFR.

In individual events, Cheyenne Saltsman remains second in the regional barrel race standings despite not being able to compete this past weekend.

“She didn’t get to go because her horse was still having some problems,” said Nose. “She’ll be with us in Glendive this week, though.”

Knerr sits fifth in the breakaway roping, just 24 points out of third-place and a spot in the CNFR. Hofrichter moved up to fifth in the goat tying standings.

On the men’s side, the Trappers hold steady at No. 5 this week in the regional standings.

On the strength of his runner-up finish in Helena, Owens bounced up to No. 2 in the regional standings in bull riding with 322 points for the year. Teammate Timothy Stevenson sits in fifth place, 63 points out of an automatic shot at Casper.

Also vaulting into CNFR qualification territory over the weekend was Novich, who now sits third in steer wrestling. Novich holds a razor-thin 12-point lead over the fourth-place cowboy in the event.

In the bareback standings, Griffis has two rodeos left to make up a 39-point gap in the standings. Griffis sits in fourth place entering the weekend.

“We had a big meeting and stressed that we’ve done great, things are going good, but we’ve got to keep it going,” Nose said. “Anything can happen. It’s still anybody’s game. We’re not sitting on our points now. We want to keep this momentum going. We’re going to be pretty solid in there.”

The Trappers head to Glendive this weekend. The team wraps up the regular season at the University of Montana rodeo, May 4-6.

 

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