College National Finals Rodeo (CNFR)
COLLEGE RODEO CROWNS 2024 CHAMPIONS
CASPER, Wyo. (June 21, 2025) – It took Cooper Filipek three College National Finals Rodeo (CNFR) qualifications before he could leave the Ford Wyoming Center as the champion. That happened on Saturday night when the Gillette College athlete had the highest total on four rides.
Filipek, who is from Rapid City, South Dakota, won the first two rounds of competition here. He placed in round three and was second in the finals behind Sam Houston State University’s Bradlee Miller who had the high score in the final round at 85. Filipek’s 83.5 put him second and gave him a total of 325 points to win the title. It was a sweet moment for the yellow-hat-wearing cowboy who finished as the reserve champion last year.
Riding his great sorrel gelding, “Tater Tot,” Southwest Texas College’s Tyler Calhoun that got the win in tie down roping. Calhoun, the 2022 national high school champion, won the first round with an 8.3. His slowest time was in round two when he stopped the clock at 11.2. He came back with a 10.1 to qualify for the finals where he had a 9.1 to finish second in the round behind Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College’s Blake Tatham who had a 7.9. Most importantly for Calhoun, he had a total time of 38.7 to win his first championship here and wrap up men’s rookie of the year honors.
Rylee George and Kate Eiland who each finished the four-head breakaway roping competition with 10.0 seconds to tie for the national championship. Eiland, who attends Pearl River Community College, had times of 3.0, 1.9, 2.4 and 2.7. George, a student at East Texas A&M University, was 3.0, 2.5, 2.2 and 2.3. This is the first National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association (NIRA) title for each of them.
The local Casper College Thunderbirds got a win when James Perrin from Maple Creek, Saskatchewan, had an 84.5-point ride in the finals. Perrin finished fourth here last year and was gunning for a title. He had three rides over 80 points and earned the title by 9.5 points. His total of 324.5 surpassed Montgomery Parsons from Tarleton State University who had 315 points on four rides.
A cowboy from Hawaii earned the steer wrestling title. Cameron Haumea is a junior at Sul Ross State University in Alpine, Texas. He grew up in Ewa Beach, Hawaii, and is a junior majoring in ranch management. The first-time qualifier had a total time of 20.6 seconds on four runs. He was nearly five seconds faster than his closest competitor, Cole Detton from Montana State University, who had a total of 25.5.
Tori Brower from Tarleton State University and Acey Pinkston from Southwest Texas College were the only competitors to win both the final round and overall titles. Brower’s win came in the goat tying. Her fastest run came on Saturday night at 6.0 seconds. She had two other 6.2-second runs and one 6.1 for a total time of 24.5 seconds and the championship.
Pinkston, the final barrel racer to run, had the fastest barrel racing time of the entire rodeo on Saturday night when she took her great gelding “Bullet” around the pattern in 13.90 seconds. She was the only competitor to stop the clock in under 14 seconds. Her horse’s registered name is Streakinfrenchbullet and the duo was easily the most consistent with times of 14.03, 14.29, 14.01 in preliminary competition. She had a total of 56.23 on four runs compared to 56.89 by Taycie Phalen from Dickinson State University who finished second.
A team roping duo out of the Southwest region earned the championship in Casper. With Cason Richey of Texas Tech University heading and Cashton Weidenbener from Weatherford College heeling, they had a total time of 26.2 seconds for the win. Right behind them was another team from the Southwest Region, Jacob Walters, also from Texas Tech University and Jeryn Ellerd from Howard College. They roped the reserve championship with a time of 27.5.
There was one successful bull rider during the finals. New Mexico State University’s Brad Moreno rode Championship Pro Rodeo’s Electric Avenue for 83.5 points. That score gave him two successful rides to finish in third place. The bull riding national title went to Trace Scarlavai who rode his three preliminary bulls for 242.5. Even though he didn’t ride his final bull, he still had the highest total score to earn the title.
Moreno also competed in team roping and earned the men’s all-around championship. The women’s all-around was Haiden Thompson of Gillette College who competed in breakaway roping and goat tying. Tarleton State University won the men’s team while Southwest Texas College earned the women’s team title.
Plans are underway for the 2025 CNFR which will return to Casper June 14 – 20, 2026.
2025 COLLEGE NATIONAL FINALS RODEO CHAMPIONS
(times and scores are total on four)
| EVENT | ATHLETE | COLLEGE | POINTS / SECONDS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bareback Riding | Cooper Filipek | Gillette College | 325 Points |
| Tie-Down Roping | Tyler Calhoun | Southwest Texas College | 38.7 Seconds |
| Breakaway Roping | Kate Eiland | Pearl River Community College | 10.0 Seconds |
| Breakaway Roping | Rylee George | East Texas A&M University | 10.0 Seconds |
| Saddle Bronc Riding | James Perrin | Casper College | 324.5 Points |
| Steer Wrestling | Cameron Haumea | Sul Ross State University | 20.6 Seconds |
| Goat Tying | Tori Brower | Tarleton State University | 24.5 Seconds |
| Team Roping | Cashton Richey | Texas Tech University | 26.2 Seconds |
| Team Roping | Cashton Weidenbener | Weatherford, College | 26.2 Seconds |
| Barrel Racing | Acey Pinkston | Southwest Texas College | 56.23 Seconds |
| Bull Riding | Trace Scarlavai | Mid Plains Community College | 242.5 Points on Three |
| CHAMPION EVENT | ATHLETE | COLLEGE |
|---|---|---|
| Men’s All-Around | Brad Moreno | New Mexico State University |
| Women’s All-Around | Haiden Thompson | Gillette College |
| Men’s Team | Tarleton State University | |
| Women’s Team | Southwest Texas College | |
| Men’s Rookie | Trace Scarlavai | Mid-Plains Community College |
| Women’s Rookie | Adyson Wright | Treasure Valley Community College |
| Men’s AQHA Horse of The Year | Hello Lashes owned by Cason Richey | Texas Tech University |
| Women’s AQHA Horse Of The Year | Ya Wright owned by Adyson Wright | Treasure Valley Community College |
CASPER, Wyo.—The following are final results from the College National Finals Rodeo, June 21, 2024, courtesy of the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association. Complete results are available at www.collegerodeo.com
Bareback riding: (final round) 1, Bradlee Miller, Sam Houston State University (Texas), 85 points on Summit Pro Rodeo’s Cowtown. 2, Cooper Filipek, Gillette College, 83.5. 3, Kooper Heimburg, Missouri Valley College, 83. 4, Bryce Eck, Missouri Valley College, 82.5.
(total on 4) 1, Filipek, 325 points. 2, Heimburg, 324. 3, Miller, 317.5. 4, Kash Martin, McNeese State University (La.), 315.5. 5, (tie) Eck and Luke Thrash, Southeastern Oklahoma State University, 313.5 each. 7, Mason Yancy, Panola College, 312.5. 8, Will Norstrom, Western Texas College, 310.5.
Tie-Down Roping: (final round) 1, Blake Tatham, Northeast Oklahoma A&M College, 7.9 seconds. 2, Tyler Calhoun, Southwest Texas College, 9.1. 3, (tie) Tanner Scheevel, Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College, and Brey Yore, South Plains College (Texas), 9.3 each.
(total on 4) 1, Calhoun, 38.7 seconds. 2, Yore, 40.2. 3, Scheevel, 43.3. 4, Tatham, 47.2. 5, Garrett Jepson, Central Arizona College, 47.4. 6, Aaron Champneys, Treasure Valley Community College (Ore.), 48.0. 7, Jayden Broussard, Panola College, 49.5. 8, Drake Foutch, Iowa Central Community College, 54.7.
Breakaway Roping: (final round) 1, Haiden Thompson, Gillette College, 1.7 seconds. 2, Rylee George, East Texas A&M University, 2.3. 4, Kate Eiland, Pearl River Community College (Miss.), 2.7.
(total on 4) 1, (tie) Eiland and George, 10.0 seconds each. 3, Alissa Erickson, Cisco College (Texas), 11.2. 4, Murphy Gaasch, Cochise College (Ariz.), 12.7. 5, Jacelyn Frost, Tarleton State University, 20.0. 6, Cassidy Bradshaw, New Mexico State University, 22.7. (on 3) 7, Haiden Thompson, Gillette College, 6.0. 8, Brooke McCully, Chadron State University (Neb.), 6.7.
Saddle Bronc Riding: (final round) 1, John Allen, Fort Scott Community College (Kan.), 85.5 points on Brookman Rodeo’s Beaver Trail. 2, James Perrin, Casper College, 84.5. 3, (tie) Montgomery Parsons and Coleman Shalbetter, Tarleton State University (Texas), and Eastan West, Casper College, 80 each.
(total on 4) 1, Perrin, 324.5 points. 2, Parsons, 315. 4, Shalbetter, 313.5. 5, Allen, 304. 6, West, 299.5. 7, (tie) Bailey Small, Tarleton State University (Texas), and Malcolm Heathershaw, Casper College, 297.5 each.
Steer Wrestling: (final round) 1, Clay Tom Hurt, Sam Houston State University (Texas), 4.2 seconds. 2, Cameron Haumea, Sul Ross State University (Texas), 4.7. 3, Wiley Jack Karas, Treasure Valley Community College (Ore.), 4.9. 4, Hadly Erickson, Bismarck State University (N.D.), 5.1.
(total on 4) 1, Haumea, 20.6 seconds. 2, Cole Detton, Montana State University, 25.5. 3, Jace Mayfield, Central Wyoming College (Riverton), 26.5. 4, Nathan Duvall, Conners State College (Okla.), 29.8. 5, Hurt, 31.1. 6, Erickson, 32.8. 7, Nate Clark, New Mexico State University, 35.4. 8, Karas, 41.7.
Goat Tying: (final round) 1, Tori Brower, Tarleton State University (Texas), 6.0 seconds. 2, Cheyenne VandeStouwe, Southwestern Oklahoma State University, 6.1. 3, (tie) Parker McIntyre, Panhandle State University, and Jacee Graff, Weatherford College (Texas), 6.2 each.
(total on 4) 1, Brower, 24.5 seconds. 2, Graff, 25.5. 3, McIntyre, 25.6. 4, Maggie Usher, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, 26.2. 5, Ashley Barratt, Utah Valley University, 26.3. 6, VandeStouwe, 28.5. 7, Joanna Hammett, University of West Alabama, 27.2. 8, Landry Haugen, University of Wyoming, 27.3.
Team Roping: (final round) 1, Cole Trexler and Kyler Erickson, University of Montana Western, 5.7 seconds. 2, (tie) Cason Richey, Texas Tech University, and Cashton Weidenbener, Weatherford College (Texas); and Jacob Walters, Texas Tech University, and Jeryn Ellerd, Howard College (Texas), 6.0 each. 4, McCrae Fillmore and Wyatt Rindisbacher, Snow College, 8.8.
(total on 4) 1, Richey and Weidenbener, 26.2 points. 2, Walters and Ellerd, 27.5. 3, Trexler and Erickson, 30.1. 4, Fillmore and Rindisbacher, 39.6. 5, Cael Hilzendeger, Bismarck State University (N.D.), and Ryan Shepherd, Mid-Plains Community College (Neb.), 58.3. (on 3) 6, Clay Helm and Kash Reynolds, Casper College, 22.5. 7, Trevor Sorge and Tel Sorenson, Gillette College, 22.9. (on 2) 8, Brody Webb and Hayden Clay, Southern Arkansas University, 10.8.
Barrel racing: (final round) 1, Acey Pinkson, Southwest Texas College, 13.90 seconds. 2, Tycie Phalen, Dickenson State University (N.D.), 14.00. 3, Adyson Wright, Treasure Valley Community College, 14.04. 4, Brylee Grubb, Gillette College, 14.08
(total on 4) 1, Pinkston, 56.23. 2, Phalen, 56.89. 3, Wright, 56.90. 4, Emma Ricke, Southeastern Oklahoma State University, 56.97. 5, Grubb, 57.03. 6, Casey Mathis, Southeastern Oklahoma State University, 57.51. 7, Jayci Byler, Sam Houston State University (Texas), 57.69. 8, Anneliese McCurry, Montana State University, 57.72.
Bull Riding: (final round- one ride) 1, Brad Moreno, New Mexico State University, 83.5.
(total on 3) 1, Trace Scarlavai, Mid-Plains Community College (Neb.), 242.5. 2, Gavin Knutson, University of Montana Western, 221.5. (total on 2) 3, Moreno, 167.5. 4, Lane Vaughn, Western Texas College, 157.5. 5, Brock Dean Cooper, Treasure Valley Community College, 144. (on 1) 6, (tie) Jay Rodrigue, Pearl River Community College (Miss.), and Jerry Gutierrez, Sam Houston State University (Texas), 84 each. 8, Hayden Welsh, Odessa College, and Dakota Smith, Northwest Mississippi Community College, 84 each.
Men’s All-Around: 1, Brad Moreno, New Mexico State University. 2, Jace Mayfield, Central Wyoming College.
Women’s All-Around: 1. Haiden Thompson, Gillette College. 2, Jordan Driver, Tarleton State University (Texas).
Men’s Rookie of the Year: 1, Trace Scarlavai, Mid-Plains Community College (Neb.). 2, Tyler Calhoun, Southwest Texas College.
Women’s Rookie of the Year: 1, Adyson Wright, Treasure Valley Community College (Ore.). 2, Brylee Grubb, Gillette College.
Men’s Team Champions: 1, Tarleton State University (Texas), 817.5 points.. 2, Missouri Valley College, 567.5. 3, University of Montana Western, 550. 4, Casper College, 507.5
Women’s Team Champions: 1, Southwest Texas College, 445. 2, Tarleton State University, 435. 3, Gillette College, 425. 4, East Texas A&M University, 312.5.
COURTESY OF NATIONAL INTERCOLLEGIATE RODEO ASSOCIATION TO TENN TEXAS MEDIA
Tenn Texas Partners
