On the strength of two top three individual finishes, the Wyoming Cowgirl rodeo team finished as national runner-up at the College National Finals Rodeo (CNFR).

Senior goat tier Amelia Anderson came within two-tenths of a second of a national title Saturday night at the Casper Events Center. She recorded a 6.5 second effort in the championship round and fell just short of Eastern New Mexico’s Tawny Barry.

Anderson said of her finish, “I’m pretty proud of myself.”

She was in sixth place going into the finals.

As for the week, Anderson said, “I came in Monday and had a pretty solid run. Then, my Tuesday run wasn’t quite as good. I missed my string the first time, and then Wednesday night, my run, I missed a leg in my gather, so I had to regather, and the last goat that I had wasn’t the best goat in the pin. He fell down, turned around, but I got to him and got him tied.”

Junior teammate Kailee Webb came into the short go as the national leader in barrel racing. She recorded a time of 14.45 seconds in her last run, but fell short by sixth-hundredths of a second. Webb placed third with a total time of 57.95. The national champion was at 57.89, while runner-up was 57.92.

In the end those two Cowgirls scored 225 points in the final round. That moved the UW women from seventh place to second. They ended up with 355 points, but placed behind Sam Houston State, who had 485 points. This was Wyoming’s best showing since winning the national title in 2009.

The finals were less thrilling for the Wyoming Cowboys at the CNFR. They qualified three contestants. Team ropers Denton and Dusty Taylor had a no time, while saddle bronc rider Wyatt Hageman was tossed off his horse. The UW men placed 20th with 225 points for last week. Panhandle State from Oklahoma won it with 827.5 team points.

Information from UW Media Relations was used in this report

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