NLC rodeo team earns podium finishes at Canadian national championships

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — The sole collegiate rodeo program in British Columbia had several top performances in the national championship in Rimbey, Alberta.

According to a press release, Northern Lights College (NLC) took on the best in Canadian college rodeo elite in the Canadian College Finals Rodeo which took place from May 16th to 18th.

Several athletes from NLC had podium finishes which reflected “the quality and depth” of the success of the program, read the release.

Among the highlights included Rylie Dowling. Dowling took the breakaway roping championship, a modified version of traditional calf roping where the animal is not thrown down and tied by a rope. 

Dowling also had a top-ten finish in team roping as a header.

Korben Mills and Kayden Russell finished in third place in team roping, as a header and heeler respectively.

Other competitors included Wyatt Bondaroff, who finished in third spot in the third round of steer wrestling with a time of 6.6 seconds and secured a top-ten finish. Bondaroff also competed in tie-down roping, finishing seventh overall. 

Brock Everett took seventh place in steer wrestling, but the top performer from the school was Rylie Bondaroff.

Bondaroff secured her second consecutive all-around Canadian cow-girl title. She dominated calf roping, blowing away her competitors with a time of 2.6 seconds in the final round, securing the Reserve Breakaway championship title.

The release concludes to say NLC’s rodeo program “has consistently produced championship-caliber competitors at the national college level.”

Other schools competing in the championship included Olds College, Vermillion’s Lakeland College, Red Deer Polytechnic, the University of Saskatchewan, and amalgamated squads from schools in central and southern Alberta.

The Canadian Collegiate Rodeo Association’s Canadian College Finals Rodeo took place at the Co-operators Agrum in Rimbey, Alberta.

More information about NLC’s collegiate rodeo program is available on its website.