By Rodrick Anderson

randerson@americanpress.com

The National High School Finals Rodeo was almost canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic, but even a venue change didn’t stop Welsh’s Kylie Conner and Sulphur’s Kolby Stelly from bringing home national championships.

Conner won the All-Around Cowgirl title with 1,120 points, holding off Jade Rindlisbacher (1,020) of Lakeshore, Utah, with a strong performance in the short-go round. Conner took second in breakaway roping (2.3 seconds) and barrel racing (15.523 seconds) in the final round.

“I knew I had a shot at it because I do two events, but I wasn’t thinking much about it,” Conner said of the All-Around title. “I knew if I did good in two events, I had a shot.

“I knew there was a lot of pressure. I just had to keep the barrels up and rope my calf real quick. I had a good calf. I got to watch a video of him before, and I knew what he would do. I don’t think that it has really set in yet. I think that it is awesome. I am still kind of in shock.”

The NHSFR was scheduled for Lincoln, Nebraska, before it was moved to Guthrie, Oklahoma.

Conner finished third in the average (7.95 seconds) in breakaway roping and fourth in barrel racing (46.71 seconds).

It is the fourth major all-around title for Conner, who will be a senior this fall. She won the Louisiana High School Finals Rodeo All-Around award and United Professional Rodeo Association title as a freshman in 2018, and the inaugural women’s Louisiana Rodeo Cowboys Association All-Around title last year.

Conner is the first Louisiana cowgirl to win the national all-around title since Mia Manzanares in 2014, and first from Southwest Louisiana since Longville’s Klancy Shope in 2007.

Stelly, who missed out on a chance to win his third consecutive LHSFR bull riding championship in May, made up for it last week, winning the national title.

Stelly made a 78.5-point ride in the first-go round and 75.5 in the second. He didn’t make the 8-second buzzer in the short-go but still had enough points to hold on to win the title, beating Clay Garley of Los Lunas, New Mexico, 154-144.5.

“It feels good to prove to myself that I can do it,” said Stelly, who was the state runner-up this year. “I didn’t know what to think. I was pressuring because all I had to do was ride. It was simple, but I could have messed it up at any point overthinking.”

Stelly is the first Louisiana cowboy to win the NHSFR bull riding title since Iota’s Judd Hebert, a three-time Louisiana bull riding state champion, did it in 2016, and the first from Sulphur since Mark Kinney in 1977.

Also from Southwest Louisiana, Iowa’s Josie Conner was runner-up in breakaway roping after winning the short-go (1.88 seconds), and Hackberry’s Jacques Trahan took seventh in tie-down roping. Sulphur’s Kaylee Kinney placed 10th in pole bending, and team ropers Hazen and Gatlin Martin of Sulphur placed 10th.