By: Justin Hargrove, Assistant Athletic Director
Northeast Texas Community College Rodeo ended the regular season of the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association (NIRA) Southern Region with a Rodeo hosted by Hill College April 26-27.
Athletes and teams earn points at each Rodeo and the top two teams advance and top three individuals advance to the College National Finals Rodeo (CNFR). Kelon Andrews (pictured right) held on to the third spot in the Team Roping Header competition and advanced to the College National Finals Rodeo in Casper, Wyoming. Kelon is partnered up with Jayden Cisneros from Wharton College as his heeler to make his first trip to Wyoming as a freshmen.
Fellow NTCC Team Roper and Heeler, Hayden Sanders (pictured left) will be the heeler for former Eagle and current Texas A&M University Commerce Rodeo athlete Kent Sheldon.
The Eagles finished the Southern Region 2023-2024 year at Hill College with Makenzie Mayes winning the Barrel Racing event and just missed a trip to the College National Finals by nineteen points.
The women continued to finish the season strong with fellow Eagles Jill White winning the Ladies Breakaway and Chloe Bahhur finishing in 6th place in the Ladies Breakaway.
On the Men’s side at Hill College, Josh Stephenson finished in 6th place in Steerwrestling, Coy Evans finished in 9th/10th position. Evans finished the season in 5th place in the region just missing the CNFR by 41.5 points.
NTCC continued to do well in team roping with the team of Kayce Hawkins and Kale Turner finishing in 6th at Hill and Eagle Koda Stikeleather and his partner finished in 7th place.
This is the first trip for the Eagles to Casper, Wyoming under Head Coach Justin Hampton who was a perineal team Qualifier at his previous school of West Hills College in California.
The CNFR will be held at the Ford Wyoming Center in Casper Wyoming June 7-15, 2024.
