By Loren Miller, USU Eastern Sports Information:
PRICE – Utah State Eastern Rodeo finished their 2018-2019 season with two riders competing at the College National Finals Rodeo last week in Casper, Wyoming.
Casey Thomas and Morgan Jensen represented USU Eastern in Casper and both finished the competition nationally-ranked.
“I couldn’t be more proud of these students! They worked hard all year and defeated some pretty stiff competition in our region to qualify for the National Finals,” said USU Eastern Rodeo Coach Monte Jensen.
Thomas finished the Finals being ranked 14 in team roping. In the third round of the team roping competition he took third but wasn’t able to crack the top 12 to advance to the short round.
Even though he didn’t move on to the short round, Thomas’ third place achievement put USU Eastern in the national standings for the first time in 25 years.
Jensen finished the week in Casper with a ranking of 24 in the country after hitting a bump in the round during the second round.
“Morgan had some tough luck in the second round. She hit a barrel which adds a 5 second penalty to your time. She would have qualified for the short round without the penalty,” said Jensen.
With Thomas and Jensen’s success at Nationals, Coach Jensen believes the future is bright for USU Eastern Rodeo.
“This has opened the gates to our program being recognized and we actually had the first group of rodeo athletes tour the school yesterday. It is looking like we will have a full roster on both the men’s and ladies teams this fall. We have some serious contenders that will be joining the team this Fall,” said Jensen.
“We would like to thank the University and especially Greg Dart for the support of the team and our continued growth and success.”
USU Eastern Rodeo will begin their Fall competition schedule in September and will host at least one rodeo in Price.
The Fall 2019 schedule with teams and times will be announced at a later date.
For more information about USU Eastern Rodeo, please contact Coach Jensen at MonteJensen@savageservices.com or Coach Leon McElprang at leon.mcelprang@usu.edu.