Ep. 59 - National Finals Rodeo 2020 Round 6 Recap
Arlington, Texas (December 8, 2020) - Let’s be honest, the first five rounds of the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo are always a hoot, but the second five rounds are more dramatic and intense this year than what you could EVER hope for as a content-starved rodeo fan! It’s also the time that we can start running our predictor stats and that’s something we love to do! You can do this as well if you jump onto our home page and download your very own updated copy of the NFR projected averages and subsequent projected world titles.
Round Quizzes
Round 5 Sponsor
Thank you so much to Black Wolf Leather shop who sponsored a beautiful leather jewelry set for our Round 5 winner! Make sure to follow her on social media and keep her in mind for the rest of your holiday shopping! You can also see the jewelry set that owner Emily named after That Western Life podcast co-host Rachel!
Round 5 Answers
While there is no wrong answer to this question, we were curious to see what the fans thought! Here’s what we learned:
Haven Meged & Shelby Boisjoli - The 2019 tie down roping rookie of the year and world champion is dating Shelby Boisjoli, a rookie in the inaugural National Finals Breakaway Roping happening right now. They won the vote!
Charly Crawford & Jackie Hobbs Crawford - Both legends in their own rights, Charly is team roping once again at the finals, while his multi-time world champion wife is competing for the first ever world championship title in the breakaway.
Tuf Cooper & Tiff Cooper - The multi-time world champion tie down roper and all around roper, Tuf is married to one of the founding western fashion icons and support accounts with Tiffany of Fashion Posse.
Sage Kimzey & Alexis Bloomer Kimzey - A dynamic duo, Sage is the six time consecutive world champion bull rider and married Alexis, related to the family behind Bloomer trailers, this summer. Alexis is a television personality for Wrangler Network, published author and motivational speaker.
ANSWER: South Dakota
While the National Finals Rodeo may be held in Texas this year, South Dakota was pivotal in keeping rodeo alive through the efforts of Governor Kristi Noem who also carried the American Flag during Round 5 of the National Finals Rodeo.
This was another one of those questions that had no wrong answer but we loved how good of a sport the reigning Miss Rodeo America Jordan Tierney was who shared this post with a laugh! Tilden Hooper, with his luscious locks, took the W for this round!
ANSWER: Two
There are only two teams that have caught every single round. A bobble by one of them in the next five rounds could shake up the standings immensely but they’re playing for keeps!
ANSWER: Ten
While there were four horses that had won awards, they have won a collective ten awards! Maybe a bit of a trick question but we have to give you a riddle every now and then!
Round 6 Prize Winner
Congratulations to Jessica Schmidt, aka @RopingTheDream on Instagram, you are the randomly selected winner of the Black Wolf Leather Shop western jewelry set! We are so thankful to everyone that has been joining in on all of the activities!
Make sure to join us on Facebook or Instagram daily to participate in winning one of our amazing prizes!
Round 7 Prize Sponsor
Make sure to jump onto the Facebook and Instagram to participate in our Round 7 quizzes and competitions! We have two amazing gifts! The first is a wild rag of the winner’s choice from the D&D Wildrags shop! They winner will also receive a wine bag and kitchen towels with western holiday graphics from The 101 Rodeo Gypsy!
Catch Up On Past Rounds
Round 6 Recap
Breakaway:
Jackie Hobbs Crawford, with the saddle horn cut off to fit her six month pregnant body, notched a 1.9 second run to win the first ever round of the National Finals Breakaway Roping.
Podcast Commentary: “I almost think they need to go to the hundredth, like in barrel racing, for breakaway. It’s just SO fast.”
Bareback:
Orin Larson had a great ride, which is exactly what he needed to do to jump start his second half of the NFR.
Cole Reiner, the rookie of the year, won the round on, fittingly, Resistol Rookie night! He’s having a great NFR and scored 87 points to win by half a point.
A lot of little movement in the average race, but there’s only 1.5 points separating the Top 3 in the NFR average. Kaycee Feilds is number one in our projected average and projected world standings with Tim O’Connell in second for both. Cole Reiner has moved up and is projected 4th in the world. He’s still 100,000 points or so behind, so while he would need some help from the top 2 in order to win the world, he could make it exciting and put on some scoreboard pressure.
Steer Wrestling
We mentioned the arm bands that some of the steer wrestlers were wearing in the Round 5 Recap and we got some more information on that today courtesy of Tyler Waguespack. They’re in memory of Tanya Carney who passed away from cancer this year. Her and her husband, Tom Carney, teach a bul dogging school and is a surrogate mom to most of the bull doggers. Wag was actually a pallbearer at her funeral.
Speaking of Wag, he had a quick run but a slight dog fall from the steer meant it didn’t fall clean giving him a longer time. Fellow Louisianan Jacob Talley had a similar issue as well.
Jule Hazen has that torn meniscus in his knee and had it drained today. As gross as that sounds, it looks like helped because he walked away without limping for the first time all NFR. His fast catch and faster throw threw him to first in the round!
Jacob Edler THREW his steer and he was SO excited. They call him the “Caveman” and he said on The Gauge podcast with Chance Conrado that he was a “big hairy American winning machine.” You got to love the energy.
Tying him in the round was someone equally as excited and that is Idaho’s Stetson Jorgensen. The two took a victory lap race for their 3.3 second runs.
Team Roping:
Dustin/Graves started FAST and they just kept getting faster. D/G came in number 2 in the average and number 1 in the world. The 4.5 second run to start it off will definitely help them in the average.
Snow/Junior took the lead with a 3.9 second run and kept it for the remainder of the performance. Reminder: 3.6 seconds is the fastest time of this National Finals Rodeo.
Saddle Bronc:
We were excited to see Cole Elshere get his first qualified ride of the 2020 NFR. It was only 79.5 points but hopefully it’s enough to boost his confidence and get him rolling for the last 4 rounds.
Stetson Wright on Sue City Sue was sure to be a great match up as last year the mare set the round record for the sixth go-round at 89.5 points. Stetson scored an 85.5 point ride to move him to the top spot at the time.
Rusty Wright came next and got the tie with Stetson for the round.
Then reigning world champion Zeke Thurston jumped in and joined the party at first place.
Lefty Holman is having a heck of an NFF. Coming in 12th he’s moving up quickly, sitting 6th in the average, and projected third overall!
The last Wright boy of the night was up though and Ryder grabbed the top spot with a 90.5 point ride!
Tie Down Roping:
Commentator Joe Beaver said that it was going to be a fast pen of calves and he was right!
Westyn Hughes had his first mistake of the finals and barely made the buzzard with a 22.4 second run (remember the time limit in tie down roping is 25 seconds). He was number one in the average and was the only cowboy to go to the pay window for every round, despite never actually having won a round. This creates an open door and we’re excited to see who takes it. Hughes is one of the many first-time NFR qualifiers who has been doing a great job this year.
The reigning rookie of the year AND reigning world champion, Haven Meged, came out with his self-trained black mare of his and ran a 6.8 second time that is now the new fastest time of the area. Prior it was a 7 second flat run. It was also a Round 6 fastest time of any arena despite the longer score in Globe Life Field when compared to the Thomas & Mack.
Cory Solomon continues to dominate on every chance he can get. He’s moved to #2 in the average because of Westyn’s bobble. That puts him a projected #4 in the world - he could be the underdog story fo the NFR.
Barrel Racing:
Hailey Kinsel made a horse change tonight after deciding that her great mare, Sister, needed a night off. She ran Leroy who is owned by Kassidy Kruse. The horses actually have the same sire.
Emily Miller was the first run out and made it count - taking the lead and staying there.
The stallion that Wenda Johnson is riding is really starting to find his stride. Remember, his first ever rodeo performance was in Round 5! He’s a futurity horse and is handling all of this like the cool cat that he is.
Fun fact: Did you know that Cheyanne Wimberly’s horse is a full sister to Ivy Conrado-Saeben’s horse JLo?
Brittany Pozzi Tonozzi moved up to 1.6 seconds of Hailey Kinsel in the average race and about $25,000 difference in the projected world between the two of these. The horse race will continue.
Emily Miller also moves up into thea average and Shelly Morgan moves out after a big hit on the second barrel.
Bull Riding:
Roscoe Jarboe put together an athletic ride in order to stay on. He’s had a rough past two nights so he needed that!
Sage Kimzey looked good but the judges caught him for a potentially controversial slap at the end of his ride for a no-time. Sage must have thought he had heard the whistle blow because he actually reached down to his rope to get off which is what resulted in the no-time.
Dustin Boquet took a re-ride and ended up taking another re-ride and then he scored an 89.5 point ride to go last to get the round win! It was also his FIRST qualified ride of the NFR.
Boudreaux Campbell also took a re-ride but didn’t have the luck, and lost his bull rope for a no time.
Ty Wallace is riding with a lot of confidence right now. Ky Hamilton came off in his ride tonight and that was BIG when it comes to the projected as day money will factor in the bull riding.
Sage Kimzey still sits out of the average money but Roscoe Jarboe has moved into it at the 7th hole. Colton Frizlan has moved to the #1 slot in the average with the most covered rides. Ty Wallace moves to #1 in the projected world, Colton Fritzlan #2, and Ky Hamilton #3.
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