Don't expect Montana's Jesse Kruse to be among the contestants. He has bigger fish to fry.
“He wants to ride bulls and barebacks, but I won't let him,” Kevin Nordahl, UM's rodeo coach, said Wednesday. “I want him to have the opportunity to win the rookie of the year in the PRCA, instead of being sore and everything else.”
That makes these rodeos - the first runs Thursday and Friday, beginning at 7 p.m. each day; the second starts at 2 p.m. Saturday, with a final go at 11 a.m. Sunday - pretty important.
“We've got to have two very exceptional rodeos to get there as a team,” said Nordahl, whose men and women are both third in the team standings. Then he added, “But we've had some pretty exceptional rodeos the last couple weeks.”
Exhibit A is steer wrestler Cole Burman, who was second at last week's rodeo in Glendive, and won the Big Sky Region rodeo in Helena before that. Now he's sitting sixth in the region, but just 31 points behind the No. 3 steer wrestler, Sidney Sorge of Miles Community College.
Billy Hendrickson is fourth in saddle bronc - Kruse is second - while Dustin Jenkins and Garett Wolfe are 1-2 in bull riding for UM.
For the women, Amber Crowley is just a couple points out of third in breakaway roping, and Brittney Nordahl is within shouting distance of the top three in goat tying.
It figures that UM-Western (first in the men's region standings, second in the women's) and Montana State in Bozeman (first in the women's standings, second in the men's) will field strong teams. But the hosts plan to battle. And Nordahl is confident he'll take a strong men's team to Casper.
“You take two bull riders, two bronc riders, a steer wrestler and a team roper, and you've got a pretty solid team for the College National Finals,” he said. “And these women have a pretty good chance as well.”
Kruse was UM's lone contested at last year's CNFR. A “Bulls and Broncs” mishap left him with a broken hand, and his foray into the saddle bronc competition didn't last long.
This season he's the men's all-around leader for the region, with 1,341 points. In addition to being second in the saddle bronc, he's third as a team roping heeler.
“Our first college rodeo this spring he made the finals in three events,” Nordahl said of the 5-foot-4 Great Falls product. “He's I guess what you'd call a very consistent player. He's an exceptional athlete, ain't no way around it. He's got a great big heart.
“All my athletes have a pretty big heart, and they want to win. And that's pretty exciting.”
Notes: Admission is free to the rodeos for UM students (with college ID) and to fans under 18. All other seats are general admission, and cost $5. The Bulls and Broncs show Saturday night at 7:30 is $10 for all fans, except for children age 6 and under. They're free.
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