STEPHENVILLE, Texas \u2014 A trio of purple-clad saddle bronc riders led the Tarleton State University men\u2019s rodeo team to a historic finish Saturday night at the College National Finals Rodeo (CNFR) in Casper, Wyo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Coleman Shallbetter, Montgomery Parsons and Bailey Small all captured top 10 finishes on the way to the men\u2019s team securing back-to-back national championships for the first time in program history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s super special because it\u2019s extremely hard to do,\u201d said head coach Mark Eakin, who has led Tarleton State\u2019s men to three titles in four years. \u201cMost of the team members were part of championship teams either last year or three years ago. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe drew well up there, but we also didn\u2019t have a lot of hiccups. We had a really good first go-round. We didn\u2019t draw the best in the second but were really consistent in the third and in the finals.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shallbetter and Parsons tied for third in the saddle bronc, with each carding an 80 on Saturday. Small\u2019s 72.5 was good for ninth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt was awesome,\u201d said Shallbetter. \u201cIt was really cool to have all my friends there and to compete against them and to be part of such an awesome team.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shallbetter wound up with a four-head 313.5 total in Casper, while Parsons\u2019 315 included go-round scores of 79, 75.5 and 80.5.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Steer wrestler Landris White, tie-down roper Brayden Roe and saddle bronc rider Waitley Sharon rounded out the competitors for the national champion men\u2019s team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFrom day one this was something all of them strived to achieve,\u201d said Eakin. \u201cIt was neat, even the ones who were out of the average, who drew something that took them out in the second or third round, they were all there on the back of the bucking chutes supporting each other. They were determined to make this one happen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tarleton State\u2019s men claimed the team title by 250 points over runner-up Missouri Valley College.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think the mindset going in was the difference for us,\u201d said Shallbetter. \u201cWe all really push each other to want to be better and to be a team.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A national title was also in the cards for goat tyer Tori Brower, who flashed a 6.0 second time in Saturday\u2019s final to takes the individual event crown and lead the Tarleton State women to the CNFR reserve championship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m glad to finish my time at Tarleton with a national champion win,\u201d said Brower. \u201cI\u2019m pretty excited.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Brower was consistent throughout the CNFR, turning in times of 6.2, 6.1 and 6.2 to earn a spot in the finals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI just took it round by round,\u201d she said. \u201cThings just kept going in my favor from the first round to the short go. I was sitting in the second and third spots in the rounds and I was totally okay with that because it kind of punched me forward in the average. I was just trying to get smooth runs like that all week.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Women\u2019s coach Brittany Stewart said that was the plan all season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cShe\u2019s been tying great,\u201d said Stewart. \u201cShe\u2019s been consistent, so we were gunning for that individual championship. That was our game plan, even at the beginning of the season last September, to stay consistent and play her game.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Teammate Jacelyn Frost corralled seventh place in the breakaway roping finals with her 3.3. She finished the CNFR with a four-head total of 20 seconds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As reserve champions for the second straight year, Tarleton State\u2019s women finished just 10 points behind eventual national champion Southwest Texas College.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cObviously, the ultimate goal was a national championship,\u201d said Stewart. \u201cWe competed hard, but with rodeo, there are so many factors. We were just a little short.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Other women\u2019s team competitors included barrel racers Jordan Driver and Hadley Tidwell and breakaway ropers Driver and Kaylie Garza.The Tarleton State rodeo program now boasts 41 combined team and individual national championships.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
STEPHENVILLE, Texas \u2014 A trio of purple-clad saddle bronc riders led the Tarleton State University men\u2019s rodeo team to a historic finish Saturday night at the College National Finals Rodeo …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":53451,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","wds_primary_category":425,"footnotes":""},"categories":[382,422,425,426],"tags":[446,455],"class_list":["post-53450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-homepage","category-morestories","category-campus-community","category-honors-achievements","tag-division-of-student-engagement-success","tag-rodeo"],"acf":{"image":false},"author_meta":{"display_name":"priddle","author_link":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/author\/priddle-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/65\/2025\/06\/Unknown-300x200.jpeg","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["_Homepage<\/a>","_morestories<\/a>","Campus & Community<\/a>","Honors & Achievements<\/a>"],"unlinked":["_Homepage<\/span>","_morestories<\/span>","Campus & Community<\/span>","Honors & Achievements<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["Division of Student Engagement & Success<\/a>","Rodeo<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Division of Student Engagement & Success<\/span>","Rodeo<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":0,"relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 10 months ago","modified":"Updated 9 months ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on June 23, 2025","modified":"Updated on July 28, 2025"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on June 23, 2025 9:01 am","modified":"Updated on July 28, 2025 8:08 am"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53450"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53450\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53452,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53450\/revisions\/53452"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}