Montague County had three teen rodeo competitors compete at the Junior World Finals in Las Vegas last week.
Conley Kleinhans and his partner Brant Cookston took home the team roping championship while Charli Snow and Bayler Smith both competed in the senior girl’s barrel racing event.
The Junior World Finals ran concurrently with the National Finals Rodeo and featured the best young talent in nine events over 10 days of competitions. More than 800 youth contestants competed.
Nocona High School senior and header Kleinhans was competing with new partner Cookston this rodeo season. With it being his last time to compete at this level, he and his partner made it count.
During their five runs the pair put up a combined time of 36.650 seconds to finish first.
The total was more than 10 seconds ahead of second place who had a time of 46.930.
“It was a great experience competing and winning this year, especially because it’s the last year I’ll qualify to do it,” Kleinhans said.
For Snow, the senior from Nocona finished 32nd overall in the senior barrels division, with her combined time for her two runs being 29.610.
Smith, a sophomore from Nocona, also competed in the senior barrels division where she finished 54th.
Her combined time for her two runs was 34.280.