Rodeo Contestants to Watch Friday, July 26th, Seventh Performance

Rough Stock Events – Bareback, Saddle Bronc and Bull Riding:

Six of todays contestants in the bareback, saddle bronc and bull riding will get a chance to ride for a championship from the 123rd “Daddy of ‘em All.” Among the bareback riders is Will Lowe who finished fourth yesterday to advance. Lowe has three world titles to his credit and three titles from Frontier Park.

His third title came last year so he will be hoping to be among the six that are here on Sunday to defend his title. Ty Breuer and Steven Dent are also in the field. They travel together and are ranked sixth and ninth respectively. Breuer is having the best regular season of his career and credits part of that to his traveling partners. Tanner Aus is also in their group and while he didn’t advance to the semifinals, Aus will be hoping one of them gets to leave here with the buckle. Aus won this rodeo in 2015 and Dent was the all-around cowboy here in 2010.

Wyoming loves their cowboys and will get to cheer for two of their own in the bareback riding, Cole Reiner from Kaycee and Seth Hardwick from Ranchester. Those Wyoming fans will also be making a lot of noise in the saddle bronc riding when local favorite Brody Cress rides. He has won the “Daddy” the past two years. If he hangs on to win a third buckle here, he will go down in history as the only saddle bronc rider to win three consecutive titles.

Last year’s bull riding champion, Rugar Piva, is ready to defend his title as well. Piva rode yesterday to an 82.5-point score to advance to the semifinals. Four-time world champion J.W. Harris is on today’s roster and while he has won nearly every title available in rodeo, he has yet to get the coveted buckle that is given to Cheyenne Frontier Day’s best.

Foster McCraw had the biggest win of his career last February at the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo. He had one of the highest-marked rides here in the quarter finals and has momentum and confidence on his side. If he advances to Sunday’s rodeo and has the highest score there, he will win two of the biggest, oldest and most legendary rodeos in the same year.

Timed Events – Steer Wrestling, Team, Tie-Down and Breakaway Roping and Barrel Racing:

The final group of steer wrestlers, team, tie-down and breakaway ropers will be working to advance to Sunday’s finals today. The barrel racers are competing in the semifinals and six of them from today’s performance will advance.

In the barrel racing watch for Kelly Kennedy-Joseph. She was tied for 70th to advance from the qualifying rounds into the rodeo performances. She went from being one of the slowest to the one of the fastest. The Colorado native lives just over an hour south of Cheyenne and has a huge fan club.

A couple of years ago, she was involved in a horse accident that had her taking a helicopter ride to the hospital. Doctors didn’t know how she would recover, and she still has headaches from the TBI she incurred. She set a goal to be back competing in 2018 and while it took longer than she would have liked, hse is back. She is riding a mare she calls “Jammer,” that her husband started and she trained. She needs to be among the six fastest times today to advance to Sunday’s Championship Finals. Defending champion Nellie Miller will also compete today.

Two legendary breakaway ropers are on today’s roster. Jackie Crawford is a many time world champion. Lari Dee Guy is also and accomplished roper that has a reputation for roping. Both of these women have had big influences in the roping world by teaching other women how to rope.

Brothers Kellan and Carson Johnson from Casper will be the first team ropers to ride in the arena today. They are hoping to earn enough money to advance to the finals. If they would win the title here, they would add something to their resume that their world champion father, Jhett Johnson has never won. There are several world champions in today’s team roping so expect the competition to be tough. Also watch for defending champions Chad Masters and Joseph Harrison to have a solid performance.