BOZEMAN — The College National Finals Rodeo gets underway on Sunday, and Montana State is sending a handful of qualifiers to Casper, Wyo., who hope to bring home some hardware. Members of the community held a send-off for the team on Tuesday night.
Both the men’s and women’s teams won the Big Sky region and look to carry over their dominance from this spring season to the CNFR.
“I like their focus, their dedication, and I saw them rising up,” Montana State coach Kyle Whitaker said. “You know, I was hardly ever disappointed. There was a couple times, but with that many kids and that many competitions so close together, you know, it’s hard not to have an off day, and I thought, for the most part, we didn’t have an off day.”
The men’s team won the region by a margin of nearly 4,000 points, and they bring a lot of previous experience on this stage, including from two of their standout athletes, Wes Shaw and Cole Gerhardt. For Shaw, it’s going to be his final representing in the blue and gold.
“Just enjoy it, have fun with it, and just kind of do whatever I did the last two years and make adjustments from there,” Shaw said about balancing the sentimental value of his final CNFR and the drive to compete. “Try to just keep a clear mind, just go out there, act like it’s another rodeo and have some fun.”
“Last year, I really (overthought) it, always thought it was the CNFR, it’s such a big rodeo,” Gerhardt said about what he learned from last year to take into this year. “I think I’m just going to try and go in there this year, kind of be cool, calm and collected. Go in there and have fun, not try and think of it as hard as I did last year.”
On the other hand, all seven student athletes from the women’s team will make their debut at the CNFR.
“We’re kind of all going into this treacherous water together, but the fact that we can trust one another, you know, we’re able to trust our abilities,” Sydney Berquist explained. “We’ve been through this before with the (Montana State) spring rodeo and all the rodeos, and we’ve gotten to watch each other succeed.”
Whitaker has a lasting message to the seniors that goes beyond competing.
“You know, I hope by now they have their memories of MSU, and all MSU’s done for them, and this is their last chance, and hopefully they can just go out and show how much they’ve improved and how much they’re ready for rodeo and life after college,” he said.
The "Bulls, Broncs and Breakaway" sessions on Sunday begin at 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. at the Ford Center in Casper. Slack begins at 7 a.m. Monday and Tuesday, then performances begin at 7 p.m. nightly. All evening performances stream on ESPN3 via the ESPN app.
