Winner Jude Sargent, Scot Kade Odens place in top 5 for South Dakota at NHSFR – Mitchell Republic

ROCK SPRINGS, Wyo. — Winner Jude Sargent and Scot Kade Odens both finished in the top five for Team South Dakota in their respective events at the National High School Finals Rodeo.

Sargent took second place in the NHSFR trapshooting competition, scoring 190 out of 200. Sargent hit 196 of 200 targets in two sessions to earn the highest score. Brandon Heck, of Arkansas, won the competition by hitting 100 of 100 targets in the final round to finish with a total of 198 targets in two rounds.

Odens took fourth place in the steer wrestling for Team South Dakota. Odens’ total time for the event was 18.3 seconds, good for fourth in a field of nearly 150 competitors for the week. Odens had a short go time of 6.27 seconds, good for eighth place in the final round. That came on top of a seventh place finish in the second round of 5.54 seconds.

Contributed

Odens, a 2024 Scotland senior, earned more than $1,700 in prize money from the event. The steer wrestling championship was won by Walker Goffard, of Berlin, Wisconsin, who had a best time of 14.73 seconds over three rounds. Quinn Moon, of Wall High School, finished eighth overall with a combined time of 21.7 seconds, giving South Dakota two of the top eight finishers.

Treyvan Talsma, of Springfield, also reached the short-go finals in steer wrestling. He placed 14th in the round with a time of 7.3 seconds and finished 11th overall in steer wrestling with a time of 22.23 seconds.

In the trapshooting competition, Winner/Colome teammate Jack Anderson and Sargent were tied after the long round, with both hitting 99 of 100 targets, two of only four shooters to hit either 99 or 100 targets in the opening round of 147 competitors. Anderson hit 93 of 100 targets in the short round and finished with 192 total targets, but that left him in 17th place. Winner’s Oren Sargent hit 94 of 100 targets in the long round, but only the top 24 shooters advanced to the short round.

Rance Bowden of Belle Fourche won his performance on Saturday morning, with a tiedown roping time of 10.13 seconds, which was 10th in the second round of performances. He was also 10th in the all-around cowboy standings with 475 points scored.

Bowden and teammate Sern Weishaar of Belle Fourche also finished fifth together in the team roping timing, with a time of 25.0 seconds over three runs, earning $2,634.67 for the duo.

Arina Haugen, of Sturgis, was the winner of the event’s all-around rookie cowgirl honors, with 840 points in the barrel racing, pole bending and breakaway roping events. She placed fourth in the overall all-around cowgirl standings, and fifth overall in the breakaway roping standings with a time of 9.32 seconds. The event was won by Baylee Barker of Atlanta, Kansas, who had a total time of 8.19 seconds. Haugen also placed 12th overall in pole bending average and 15th in barrel racing.

Gregory’s Taos Weborg, who finished third in the bareback riding jackpot in his first attempt, earned $813.17 in winnings from that effort. He finished 41st in the overall bareback riding results.

Other notable Mitchell-area aggregate finishes included Woonsocket’s Tierney Breen who placed 30th in goat tying and Wessington Springs’ Raylee Fagerhaug who placed 80th in a field of 189 runners. Breen finished with an aggregate time of 17.06 seconds while Fagerhaug’s time was 20.05 seconds. Winner Garret Phillips placed 47th in the reined cow horse competition with a score of 561.5 points.

As a team, South Dakota finished sixth in the boys standings with 3,215 points, while the South Dakota girls were 13th with 1,580 points. Texas won both team competitions with 4,997.50 points for the boys and 5,655 points for the girls.

Our newsroom occasionally reports stories under the name “Mitchell Republic.” Often, the name “Mitchell Republic” is used when rewriting basic news stories that come from official sources, such as a city press release about a road closure, and require little or no reporting. Sometimes this name is used when a news story has multiple authors or when the story is formed by aggregating previously reported news from several sources. If outside sources are used, this is noted in the story.