By SAMI MCGUIRE
Sports Editor
Duos come along every once in a while. In rodeo, they are rare.
Duos at a young age are even rarer, but that is what Denton Mars and Chase Finnell appear to have. The two Oklahomans went into the short-go 10th and surprised even themselves when they won average in the team roping in Fort Scott, Kan.
Even though the two freshmen from Northwestern Oklahoma State University are new to roping at the college level, one thing has stayed constant for them. Finnell started team roping competitively his junior year of high school, and the two have been roping together ever since.
“It’s a lot easier to rope with somebody and learn with somebody instead of trying to switch and switch,” Mars said. “I’ve never roped better than anybody else. He ropes really good and we’re getting better together.”
Mars, the header, left the timed-event box late on their first steer, and part of that is a habitual problem he has: he begins the run fine but tends to pull back on the reins to slow his horse before they get into the arena. That is something the two have worked on in practice, something they do each day to push each other to improve.
Although Finnell started team roping just in his junior year of high school he has been a part of the rodeo community his whole life. Finnell’s dad is the rodeo manager of the Frontier Rodeo Company.
“I grew up in rodeo,” Finnell said. “I’ve always been in the stock contracting end of it.”
Finnell picked team roping as his event and has never looked back. Being the son of a stock contract meant he’s been watching it since he was young. When he picked up team roping, he didn’t have to start from scratch. “Since I’ve started roping, I’ve watched all the pro guys and picked up on a few pointers along the way,” Finnell said. “Frontier helped me see more in the rodeo business and what goes on behind the scenes.”
Frontier has not only helped Finnell get ahead in the rodeo world, it has also helped Mars. Mars also works for Frontier and made his choice to attend Northwestern so he and Finnell could compete together while still being close to the Freedom, Okla.-based company.
“Frontier helped us with college, and helped us with rodeo,” Mars said. “It got us started and going down the road and stuff like that. Just getting out there when you’re young and learning a bunch of horsemanship and stuff like that really helps you rope.”
Not only does the team work together, go to school together, haul together and rope together, but they also share horses. Finnell’s horse got hurt about a month ago, and since then he has been riding Mars’ practice horse.
Finnell said he gets along with the mare well because he gets to practice on her a lot. He said he is hoping his horse will be ready in time for the Garden City, Kansas, rodeo in a few weeks.
The team doubted their abilities to win the average since they went in to the short round 10th. They got some advice from eight-time world champion bull rider Don Gay, who recommended they visualize winning. The two joked about it casually but hadn’t expected the cards to fall their way.
In the team roping, Northwestern had several others make it back to the short round. Kass Bittle and Jaydon Laubhan placed fifth in the average. Dylan Schulenberg placed sixth in the average with his partner Wyatt Miller, of Fort Scott Community College.
The men’s team placed third and the women’s fourth. Northwestern took 23 spots in the short round and had 15 place in the average.
Northwestern took six short-round holes in the steer wrestling. Bridger Anderson placed second in the average. Riley Wakefield placed fourth in the average, and Grayson Allred finished sixth. Jace Rutledge, Talon Roseland and Colton Brown also made the short round, but didn’t place.
Allred also made the short round in the tie-down roping and placed fourth in the average. Wakefield placed third in the average. Taylor Donaldson made the short round but did not place in the average.
Northwestern senior Cassy Woodward won the barrel racing title, while Kayla Copenhaver placed third in the average. Alyssa Gabrielson knocked a barrel in the short round to take her out of the average race.
Gabrielson also made the short round in the breakaway roping and placed second in the average, while Taylor Munsell placed fourth. Brittany Cudworth also made the short round in the breakaway roping but did not place in the average.
In goat tying, Melissa Couture placed sixth in the average, while Aundrea Dufrane and Meghan Corr also made the short round but did not place.
Great duos come along once in a while in the rodeo world. Mars and Finnell took home their first college rodeo win and plan to keep doing what they are doing at the next rodeos.
“I’m just going to go out there and make a practice run and see if it sticks,” Mars said. “We’ll try to make the short go again, and that’s all we’re going to do.”