Central Wyoming College's Men's and Women's rodeo teams are rearing and bucking their way into their first competition this fall, as they welcome back stellar returners and potential-rich newcomers to both teams. Coming into his 13th season as the head coach of the Rustler rodeo teams, Andrew Schrock is optimistic about both rosters of athletes he has and believes his men's and women's teams possess strong competitors across the board.  

"We got a lot of returners that had success last year, and I'm pretty excited about that," Schrock said about his squad, "A lot of them have been rodeoing this whole summer and qualified for lots of finals."

Sophomores Jace Mayfield, Stran Williams, and Caden Gines are part of a returning lineup on the men's side that Coach Schrock hopes can continue to develop key competitive areas on the team, "The 'bulldogging' [is going to be our biggest strength], we're going to be really good there. Brahmer Gaehring is back for his second year in bull riding. He's gritty, and so is Colton Clymer. Those guys can just go out and get it done, and they did so last year with confidence," Schrock said about the group of second-year athletes, "Rian Nunn had a pretty good summer, and last year he was showing glimpses of doing stuff right."

The Lady Rustlers bring back their own fair share of firepower, and Schrock highlighted a couple of his athletes he envisions leading the women's team, "Sydney Jones and Tricia Lammers are back and are leaders on the women's side . . . we got a couple gals [out of Idaho], one from Blackfoot, Maylee Nordstrom, and another out of Rexburg, Kenedie Balster. They're multi-event gals who have been great at doing their thing, so we have some power over there that'll be fun to see what happens."

As far as newcomers go, Coach Schrock recruited a pair of highly-touted bareback riders, Chaz Dewey and Eian Smith, to join the Rustlers. These two freshmen were top 4 bareback riders in the state of Wyoming a year ago at their respective high schools. The duo is joining the men's team this year, with high hopes that both athletes will be able to contribute valuable team points in competitions. "Looking at the numbers, a couple of bareback riders is huge as far as what you can do [adding scoring] team point wise," Schrock said regarding his outlook on the team's additions for this season.  

There is no shortage of excitement for Coach Schrock with his first-year Lady Rustlers either, especially since he was able to recruit some home-grown talent to stay in Fremont County, "We do have a couple local [freshmen] girls, Grace Neubauer and Faye Hellyer, which is exciting because I got to watch them improve all summer long."

The Rustler men's and women's rodeo teams travel to Nebraska today, September 6, to open up their season at Chadron State College. The rodeo event will last until Sunday, September 8. When asked about what advice he's telling his team going into their first rodeo competition of the season, Schrock said, "Stick to your gameplan: whatever that is personally, don't let the ride before you dictate what you're going to do. If it works, you know that. And if it doesn't, then let's go home and tweak the little things."

With the 2024 fall sports season ramping up the next couple weeks, we encourage you to refer back to the rustlerathletics.com website everyday for more information on home and away fall sports competitions, score and standing updates, and releases involving your Rustler Athletics teams!