{"id":21799,"date":"2025-06-15T18:07:47","date_gmt":"2025-06-15T18:07:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/ute-mountain-roundup-closes-out-in-front-of-sellout-crowd\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:09:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:09:08","slug":"ute-mountain-roundup-closes-out-in-front-of-sellout-crowd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/ute-mountain-roundup-closes-out-in-front-of-sellout-crowd\/","title":{"rendered":"Ute Mountain Roundup closes out in front of sellout crowd"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Kasey
Kasey Rosendahl from Meeker rides bronc Cowboy Casino on the final day of the 2025 Ute Mountain Roundup rodeo in Cortez. Erika Alvero\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

CORTEZ \u2013 Talking about the spectacle of rodeo, team roping legend Trey Yates said it best before his performance on Thursday evening: \u201cEvery time you step into the arena, you just never know what\u2019s fixing to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the course of the three days at the Montezuma County fairgrounds, the Ute Mountain Roundup rodeo contestants showcased the electrifying highs and frustrating lows that keep the rodeo contestants chasing the buckle from one stop to the next.<\/p>\n

At the end of the weekend, it was Thursday\u2019s performances that collected the lion\u2019s share of the UMR payouts, but the Saturday final salvo delighted the crowd nonetheless.<\/p>\n

One of the final rides of the Saturday session proved to be one of the biggest, as Cheyenne, Wyoming\u2019s Brenson Bartlett held on for a ride of 81 points in the bull riding to take second place in the UMR to Wyatt Nez\u2019 85-point ride from Thursday.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Hobbs, New Mexico\u2019s Cimarron Thompson nearly unseated Brady Buum for the top steer wrestling time, but finished just one-tenth of a second shy of a UMR title with an effort of 4.3 seconds.<\/p>\n

Stetson Bierman of Hidalgo, Illinois jumped into the top three in the bareback competition with a Saturday night ride of 77.5, but Jacoby Campbell stayed clear of the field for the UMR win.<\/p>\n

In tie-down roping, Brody Stallard of Fort Sumner, New Mexico, took third in the field, wrangling his livestock in 10.8 seconds, as Thursday\u2019s Hunter Reaume held strong with a 10-flat run for the title.<\/p>\n

\"Brenson
Brenson Bartlett from Cheyenne, Wyoming rides Corn Pop to a whopping 81-point score on the final day of the 2025 Ute Mountain Roundup rodeo in Cortez. Erika Alvero\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Brenson
Brenson Bartlett from Cheyenne, Wyoming rides Corn Pop to a whopping 81-point score on the final day of the 2025 Ute Mountain Roundup rodeo in Cortez. Erika Alvero\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The breakaway roping, team roping, and saddle bronc top-four went unchanged throughout Saturday night, as Braylee Shepherd and Grace Perez earned co-champion rights with a time of 2.6 in breakaway roping, while Tanner Tomlinson and Travis Graves saw their time of 4.4 seconds in team roping hold up throughout the weekend.<\/p>\n

While Saturday\u2019s saddle bronc competitors turned in valiant efforts, the scores from Friday night\u2019s Wright family exhibition almost seemed to make everyone else\u2019s aspirations into a pipe dream for the Saturday competitors, as Stetson Wright led his brothers\u2019 posted scores of 89, 86.5 and 83.5 to swoop away the top-three prize money.<\/p>\n

Finally, the Thursday slack time that set a new arena record of 17.17 seconds from Brittany Pozzi Tonozzi was more than enough to hold up throughout the following two sessions to help the Texan earn the biggest payout in the field.<\/p>\n

Stetson Wright also captured the payout for all-around cowboy courtesy of his efforts in both the saddle bronc and bull riding. Competitors divided up the prize pool of just over $100,000 on their way to the next stop on the circuit.<\/p>\n

With the final buzzer for the eight-second timer signaling the end of the bull riding, so too ended the 95th edition of the Ute Mountain Roundup rodeo. Judging by the smiles on the faces of the fans making their way out of the fairgrounds, it\u2019s hard to imagine a better way to cap off a summer evening than with one of the Four Corners\u2019 most exciting spectacles.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

classic finishes with a bang as riders collect big payouts<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21800,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[38,39,28,37,36],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-21799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-dolores-high-school","tag-dove-creek-high-school","tag-headlines","tag-mancos-high-school","tag-montezuma-cortez-high-school"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21799"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77464,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21799\/revisions\/77464"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21799"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=21799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}