{"id":21823,"date":"2025-06-14T19:09:43","date_gmt":"2025-06-14T19:09:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/update-wrights-live-up-to-hype-at-ute-mountain-roundup\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:09:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:09:09","slug":"update-wrights-live-up-to-hype-at-ute-mountain-roundup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/update-wrights-live-up-to-hype-at-ute-mountain-roundup\/","title":{"rendered":"Update: Wrights live up to hype at Ute Mountain Roundup"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Utah
Utah cowboy Stetson Wright matches his arena record with a ride of 89 points at the Ute Mountain Roundup rodeo on Friday night at the Montezuma County Fairgrounds. Jessica Nix\/PRCA Photographer<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

CORTEZ \u2013 With all the buildup around the powerhouse Wright family competing in the 95th Ute Mountain Roundup rodeo on Military Night on Friday night, it was hard to imagine that their performance could somehow outshine the lofty expectations.<\/p>\n

Leave it to Stetson Wright to do just that.<\/p>\n

The 25-year-old from Beaver, Utah, currently sitting No. 1 in the PRCA all-around cowboy standings put together an eight-second master class on his Powder River Rodeo saddle bronc, turning in a stadium record score of 89 points to virtually assure him another UMR title. His score matched his record from two years ago, and in speaking with UMR public relations director Madelaine Gaskey, he credited the Cortez crowd for his achievement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s nothing quite like competing at the Ute Mountain Roundup,\u201d Wright told Gaskey after his record-tying ride. \u201cThis crowd, this atmosphere \u2013 it brings out the best in every competitor. When you can match an arena record, especially one you set yourself, it\u2019s pretty special.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stetson joined his family of Ryder, Spencer, and Statler in the Montezuma County Fairgrounds to the delight of the massive crowd, signing autographs after their showcase rides.<\/p>\n

The Wright brothers swept the top three spots in the saddle bronc standings at the night\u2019s end. Ryder finished second with a score of 86.5 while Statler made a run of 83.5 to finish in a tie for third with Riggin Smith.<\/p>\n

One other event saw a leadership change on Day Two, as Jacoby Campbell took the top spot in the bareback riding standings with a ride of 78.5.<\/p>\n

Former UMR champion Chase Black made a 4.6 second run in steer wrestling to find himself in a tie for second, while Janae Todacheenie moved into third place in breakaway roping with a ride of 2.8 seconds.<\/p>\n

\"Stetson
Stetson Wright from Beaver, Utah holds on tight during bull riding, the final event of the evening at the Ute Mountain Roundup rodeo on Friday night at the Montezuma County Fairgrounds. Erika Alvero\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Regan
Regan Lyons from Snyder, Texas faces off against bronc Wild Child for the bareback riding event at the Ute Mountain Roundup rodeo on Friday night at the Montezuma County Fairgrounds. Erika Alvero\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
Rob Yates Memorial Golf Tournament continues annual tradition<\/div>\n

For the 12th straight year, Conquistador Golf Course in Cortez hosted the Rob Yates Memorial Golf Tournament alongside the Ute Mountain Roundup, with proceeds from the tournament helping to contribute to the UMR committee\u2019s efforts to put on one of the premier sporting events in the Four Corners.<\/p>\n

The \u201ccowboy golf\u201d format of the tournament allowed participants to showcase their skills in non-golf events like washers, poker and steer roping in order to help lower their team scores. Separated into three flights on Friday morning, the celebratory atmosphere brought out plenty of laughs in the lead up to Friday night\u2019s excitement at the rodeo grounds.<\/p>\n

The quartet of Jake and Theresa Dale, Tyler Underwood and Jakob Rudosky won the championship flight, while the foursome of Clay and Doug Rathjen, Kyle Dunton and Jon Pete won the first flight. Cory and Kelsi Bramwell, Calvin Brevik, and Kyle Roberts took the second flight in the tournament.<\/p>\n

The final night of the Ute Mountain Roundup rodeo will celebrate FFA Night, with action beginning at 7 p.m. from the Montezuma County fairgrounds.<\/p>\n

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

Stetson Wright matches his own arena record in saddle bronc<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21824,"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-21823","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\/21823","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=21823"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77474,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21823\/revisions\/77474"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21823"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=21823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}