Cole Wheeler and Wesley Thorp win their secondstraight national collegiate championships in Casper.
![Back To Back](https://magarticles.magzter.com/articles/6140/236031/598867fa5399c/Back-To-Back.jpg)
Want to know how tough it is to defend a national team-roping championship in college rodeo? For about the first 30 years of the annual College National Finals Rodeo (CNFR), nobody did it. Then, for 33 years after J.D. Yates won the 1980-81 titles for the University of Southern Colorado, nobody did it.
Now, not long after Tarleton State’s Billy Bob Brown and Eastern New Mexico University’s Logan Medlin were able to win the 2013-14 titles, defending champions Cole Wheeler and Wesley Thorp of Texas Tech University matched the feat. Wheeler and Thorp were on a mission at the 69th Annual CNFR, June 11-17 in Casper, Wyo., where they once again bested the top teams from 10 other geographic regions to win the back-to back championship.
“Those boys have always roped amazing,” said Texas Tech rodeo coach Stetson Corman. “They’re just winners. They find a way to win, whether it’s on a good or bad draw.”
Wheeler and Thorp, who won the championships last year for Weatherford College and Ranger College, respectively, won the titles this time by catching four steers in the Casper Events Center in 25.2 seconds.
“Last year, we had a four-second lead,” said Wheeler. “This year, it was a lot closer. We weren’t high call, and we’d have to beat the team ahead of us.”
The pair had jumped out with a 6.1 in Monday-morning slack for second place in the first round. Two more similar runs sent them to the lead on three head with a 19.3 (tied with Gillette College’s Cooper Wright and Riley Wakefield). But then Southern Region champs Ty Arnold and Mason Boettcher came tight in 6.5 on their third steer to edge ahead by a tenth of a second heading into the short round.
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Denne historien er fra August 2017-utgaven av Spin to Win Rodeo.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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![At Home With](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/6140/364265/5d6e066ee82dc/crp_At-Home-With.jpg)
At Home With
Whether he’s home in his native Brazil or here in America, Lincoln Figueiredo ropes all day every day. Heeling is his favorite—he’s an 8.5 on the back side—but he’s packed all kinds of roping into a very full 46 years. Figueiredo lives in Presidente Prudente, Sao Paulo, Brazil, with his wife, Marina, and baby girl, also Marina.
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Zane Tisdale's Leather & Life
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Torres Brothers Missing Main Mounts
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How Smoothing Out Your Start And Your Handle Will Speed Up Your Runs
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Remembering the “Answer Man”
This spring, the rodeo and roping world lost a man who spent his life in its folds, shaping its functions: Hugh “Rooster” Chambliss.
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Randy Lewis: Horse Vet
For heeler Randy Lewis, DVM, becoming a horse doctor wasn’t a choice he made. Instead, it was just a fact of life since as long as he can remember.
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Luke Brown On Earning His Spot Among The Best
Luke Brown on earning his spot among the best.
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The Battle Of The Bubble Boys
The bubble. It’s not the place anyone wants to be right now, but it’s inevitable that there are teams put in that position every season.