Locals compete at NJHFR in S.D.

By Tyler Lowey, Times Reporter

Four local kids returned from the grandest stage for youth rodeo last week.
Rockyford’s Lexi Kathol, Duck Lake’s Kylie Bishop, along with Austin and Rylin Scheller of Langdon, made the trip to Huron, S.D. for the annual National Junior High Finals Rodeo (NJHFR).
A trip to South Dakota is the crowning achievement for Grade 6, 7 and 8 students. With over 1,000 competitors from all over North America and Australia, the very best in youth rodeo was put on display June 24 to 30.
Kathol was the only one of the four to compete in a non-animal event, as she took aim in the light rifle event.
Shooting from the prone, standing and kneeling position, Kathol sniped a 91 from the prone, 53 from a standing position and 87 from a knee, to give her a total of 231, well back of a qualifying score to advance to a short round.
“I first got into the sport by shooting gophers on our farm when I was 10. To be competing at the finals rodeo a few years later is pretty amazing and I’m surprised that I got the chance to be there,” said Kathol.
Kathol, who will be entering Grade 9 next fall at Wheatland Crossing School, also competes in the pole bending, barrel racing and breakaway roping, but was only in the rifle in South Dakota.
Bishop, 14, entered in the goat tying and ribbon roping.
Like Kathol, she was pinned up against a large field of contests from all over. Her time of 15.38 seconds in the goat tying and 9.51 seconds in the ribbon roping were not enough to qualify for the short go.
The Scheller team ran into some tough luck and some crafty livestock down in Huron. After two runs, the Scheller team failed to record a time and did not advance.
The Schellers should have been a safe bet to land at least one time, seening as how Rylin finished as the leader in breakaway roping in the Alberta High School Rodeo season. Austin, a Grade 9 student at Langdon School, also has background in calf roping and ribbon roping, but the brotherly tandem couldn’t get any luck on the big stage.
The four contestants qualified for the NJHFR when they earned enough points at the Alberta Provincial Finals in Nanton, Alta., May 25 to 27. They all finished in the top four for their events, which was good enough to earn them a trip to South Dakota.
From 2005 through 2013 the NJHFR was hosted in Gallup, N.M. Since then, it has made stops in Des Moines, Iowa, for 2014 and 2015, and was in Lebanon, Tenn., for the two previous rodeos.