Ep. 98 - Round 5 National Finals Rodeo Recap 2021
It’s time for the Round 5 Recap with Rachel Owens-Sarno and Scout Baker for today’s recap. The overall thought is that the entire finals has been kind of a shock. The contestants we expected to show up and show off hasn't been happening but a lot of them got their momentum back in Round 5 for the second half of the rodeo. The round was crazy but we will jump into the instagram quiz.
NFR Pre-Show Insta-Quiz
Who was the NFR Dress Act of the Year?
Bobby Kerr! An extremely emotional win after battling cancer for the past year.Who delivered the PRCA Keynote?
Governor Kristi Noem from the great state of South Dakota. While it wasn’t the second option, Courtenay DeHoff, we think that she would be a valuable speaker in the future. She just announced that she’ll be speaking for the AQHA Youth World Show.How many TWL podcast guests are working at the NFR this year?
Technically 30 was the closest number to the accurate one with the real number being close to 48. Whether in the spotlight or behind the scenes, we’ve been blessed with a lot of great guests on the show.Who is most likely to win the NFR?
Stetson Wright may not be having the NFR he wanted but he was far enough ahead that those who could put pressure on him haven't been doing so. It’ll be his.The last question was just a shoutout to the Miss Rodeo America contestants.
NFR Round 4 Insta-Quiz
Which event has more NFR qualifications in the Top 15; bareback or bull riding?
Bareback by far!Which NFR header is heading at their first NFR?
Quinn Kessler is heading his first NFR, he has heeled at the NFR before.Which came first, the NFR or the Super Bowl?
Katie wrote “US BABY” and she was thinking she said U.S. and not the NFR, but the NFR did come first!What is the average age of the NFR contestants in the PRCA, men-only?
The answer is 28.7 years of age, rounded up to 29 years old with team roping heelers and steer wrestlers being the oldest. Wade Sundell is 36 and Cody DeMoss is 40!Who has moved the most in the projected world title race for bareback?
The trick question is that it is both Jess Pope and Cole Reiner - they have actually moved the same amount. He’s a dark horse that we may not be paying enough attention to.
Event Recap
Bareback
Cole Reiner did come in 4th today which helps him out in the average race and the world title race. Taylor Broussard, however, was looking pretty busted after his ride tonight. We are really seeing the injuries start to come in to play.
Cole Franks went for 90 points, Tim O’Connell showed up with a good strong ride with an 87.5 point ride and Tilden Hooper’s ride was great but not good enough to win with an 89 point ride. Despite coming in at the number one spot, Tilden hasn’t had the horsepower to help him win the money that he is needing to keep that lead.
Jess Pope had an 86.5 point ride which was great to have for him for the average but enough for day money. Kaycee Feilds - man they saved the best for last! He beat the record he tied last night with Bobby Mote for the go-round win with 26 and is now in first place in the average. He just needs to stay consistent to win that world title. The standings have shook a lot this NFR that it’s hard to know who to vote for!
Steer Wrestling
Tyler Pearson won Round 5 with a 3.6 second run. Will Lummus and Jacob Talley tied with a 3.7 second run. Riley Duvall has been having a fantastic NFR, but he slipped the head and it was heartbreaking! He just broke his hot streak with an ultimate heat check and with several more rounds to go, hopefully he can get back to it.
Cody Devers injury was really showing tonight - he could barely lift his right arm up to put that steer down. We were feeling so bad for him at his first NFR.
Stockton Graves had a great run and, like Pearson, he’s just kind of been lurking there. Stetson Jorgensen was going to be a 3.2 second run and you could see just how bummed all the cowboys were when they realized he had broken the barrier for a plus ten second. Jesse Brown also broke the barrier tonight as well. Contestants are starting to push it time wise for the day money as they are out of the average or need to make moves.
Team Roping
What a strange right? Two sets of 9 seconds got paid with a one leg catch! Not something that you often see at the NFR but Proctor and Medlin (on the horse of the year) split it. In their wrap up interview that Coleman Proctor said that he was too competitive with Jake Long sitting ahead of him which was great motivation to out rope them. Colemon actually won the American a few years back as well.
A team heating up is Rhen Richard and Jeremy Buhler with two great runs back to back. Then there was a lot of no times on both headers and heelers. Now there are only five teams that have roped all five so far! As we have said in the beginning, the NFR is tough on the team ropers.
“Team roping was the craziest event tonight,” says Scout.
Saddle Bronc
“I am obsessed with Ben Andersen’s chaps - the burgundy and gold - and basically every night I say they’re the prettiest chaps,” says Rachel Owens-Sarno.
Wade Sundell got bucked off in grand entry and you could see that maybe he got hurt a little bit more than people originally thought. You could tell he was hurting and especially after he got bucked off after five to six seconds when he got bucked off. He definitely needed help once he stepped into the back area. At first, it was funny in the grand entry, but then you realized how much it hurt him to have it be a good laugh - it was a lot more serious than that. Such a bummer and hopefully it won’t effect him too much in the rest of the NFR.
Two flank straps came off for automatic resides. Layton Green was one of them who had great rides on both horses but not enough to get paid. Wyatt Caspet had an impressive ride with Onion Ring but the round got stronger and stronger. Zeke Thurston was 90.5 on the former horse of the year Miss Congeniality. Stetson Wright had a 90.5 point ride and got kicked in the chest by the horse on the dismount. He also had his flank strap come off but he didn’t take it, obviously, with the round tying score her already had.
“It was a dirty dismount and he just walked off!” says Scout.
“I trip and I’m sad!” says Rachel.
Stetson and Ryder had been teasing each other about who was going to be number one back and forth. That would be Ryder who ended up scoring a 92 point ride - this comes back to play a little bit later.
Tie Down Roping
Ty Harris was all about the effort today. Threw his first rope, didn’t think he caught, tossed his second, missed and then realized the first rope was on. He ended up with a time of 21.4 second run which works but it was so weird how that first one had caught.
“He almost should have jumped at the first, is what they were saying, but I think it went over all of our heads that it was still on,” says Scout. Potentially the rope was wrapped around the calf’s head but nobody realized it was tight enough to catch the calf.
Marcos Costa, the 2017 World Champion who took some time off for knee surgeries, had a great run with an 8.6 second. There were a lot of runs in the high 7 and 8 second runs.
Mary Yates came in to win the round with a 7.3 second run and that was the first time he’s gone to the pay window this year. That’s really unheard of for Marty and is a part of our sign that the veterans are starting to heat up. He won almost $27K tonight which should be a good confidence booster for him going into round 7.
Barrel Racing
Emily Miller-Beisel broke the Round 5 record with a 13.54 second run and a 0.1 second run between her and Hailey Kinsel. Jordon Briggs and Dona Kay Rule were all right there as well! It made it really fun to watch!
They mentioned that back to back runs were won on five year-old horses with round 3 and round 4, but tonight was pretty impressive with Chongo throwing down that time. He’s a very calm and quiet horse that turns out the speed into the arena. Emily has got a way with him that has him cruising up the alley and then getting him prepped! His run looked lightning fast which is strange because in person versus Instagram versus the Cowboy Channel - it all looks so different speed wise!
It’s crazy how many sub-14 second runs we have seen all week - it’s just incredible!
Bull Riding
Starting with number 5, Clayton Sellers, he was on Cookie Collar of Dakota Rodeo and it was a great bull ride. That was Scout’s pick for the pen, despite her bull rider boyfriend Lane saying no. Clayton covered and earned some money but he got a little loose with his feet that docked him some points.
Beaudreux Campbell got an 85.5 point ride on a right turn around. When Beaudreaux has his mojo he’s great but he’s putting up a fight against Parker Breding who got bucked off which changes the average. Trey Benton III rode Wolf of Wall Street with an 86 point and then Josh Frost with an 86.5 point ride.
Josh actually held the lead for quite a while. If you watched the night, however, you know that Stetson Wright won the round with bull of the year Chiseled and it was 94.5 point ride. It was every bit of 94.5 points and Donny Gay almost bucked himself off the back of the bucking chutes. Donny gets so excited that you can’t even understand what he is saying. It was a great world champion versus world champion and I think Stetson is back to the world champion that he is! It was the confidence boost that he needed!
After a heck of a bronc ride, getting kicked, scoring great, and then comes back like that in the bull ride. We missed Donny Gay for a few years and he’s back and we love it! He’s exactly how Rachel would be if they gave her a mic to color commentate just yelling, hooping and hollering!
With Sage Kimzey getting bucked off and being hurt, we may see another World Championship steal.