Bareback Riding Co - Champions

Bareback riding co - champ: Gauge McBride
Gauge McBride was nearly in his own backyard when he won the co-championship of the Phillipsburg Rodeo.
The Kearney, Neb. cowboy rode the Beutler horse Pebbles for 83 points and a tie with Jacek Frost.
McBride, who is 22 years old, had ridden the horse in Tucson but didn’t have a high enough score to win money there. “She had a really good trip in Phillipsburg that day,” he remembered, “kind of wild and fun. That’s one of my favorite horses of Bennie’s because she’s nice to you.”
Last year was McBride’s rookie PRCA year, and it was a good one. He not only won Phillipsburg, but won Burke, S.D., Burwell and Hastings, Neb., and Henryetta, Okla., among other rodeos, qualifying for his second Prairie Circuit Finals and winning the year-end title for the circuit.
He spent the winter working, but this summer, he’s rodeoing. “Everything (about pro rodeo) is fun,” he said. “It’s pretty hard being home all winter and going to work every day.
In high school and at Panola College in Carthage, Texas, he rode not only bareback horses but saddle broncs and bulls, too. But bareback riding is his forte. The toughness of the sport “is what I love about bareback riding. It’s dang for sure a tough guy event.”
First buckle he won: a mutton busting buckle at age 4 at a rodeo in Thedford, Neb. His parents were still rodeoing: his mom as a breakaway roper and his dad as a saddle bronc rider.
Favorite snack: Fruit, especially pineapple, grapes, watermelon, and strawberries. “When I’m on the road, I’ll buy cups of fruit at gas stations.”
Rodeo accomplishments: 3x high school rodeo bareback champ, 1x high school rodeo bull riding champ, and 2x high school rodeo all-around champ. Qualified for the College National Finals Rodeo twice, finishing fourth in the nation in 2022; 2x Prairie Circuit Finals champ.
Family: parents Cooper and Jacque McBride; sister Carsyn.

Bareback riding co - champ: Jacek Frost
was co-champion along with Gauge; he scored 83points on Cap Rock. The nineteen-year-old bareback rider lives in Browns Valley, Calif. and won the 2023 California Circuit Finals Rodeo

Steer Wrestling – Trisyn Kalawaia

Trisyn Kalawaia is the 2023 Kansas Biggest Rodeo steer wrestling champion.
The Hawaii native, who now lives in Alva, Okla., turfed his steer in 3.4 seconds to win the buckle and a check for $3,316.
A resident of the Big Island, Trisyn (pronounced TRI sun),attends Northwestern Oklahoma State University and will graduate in May 2025 with a degree in ag science and business.
Rodeo is not unheard of in Hawaii, Trisyn said. “There’sdefinitely a lot of cowboying there, and a lot of ranches.”
But Trisyn grew up surfing, not on horseback. “My wholefamily surfs, but I had an uncle who did a little bit of ranching. I used to go with them and help with brandings or ride, and that’s how I got into it.”
He travels with his college rodeo coach Stockton Graves, a Wrangler NFR qualifier. “I think that was the best thing for me,” he said, “being able to learn from him. Outside the rodeo world, he’s a great friend and a great guy to be around.”
Growing up on the Big Island, he and his family harvested their own meat, fishing and harvesting chickens and hogs. He misses that. “If you needed food for your family, you caught a pig and put it in the smokehouse. Or you’d go to the ocean, catch fish, and that’s what you’d eat.”
Phillipsburg is not Trisyn’s first pro rodeo win, but the buckle is his first pro rodeo buckle. He sent it to his mom in Hawaii, “because it was the first one I’d had like that. She thought it was pretty neat. It’s in the buckle case.”
First buckle he won: At a Parker Ranch Rodeoin Hawaii for the junior steer riding at a Labor Day weekend rodeo.
Favorite snack: Flying J Truck Stop meat lovers pizza.
Rodeo accomplishments: 2023 Prairie Circuit Finals qualifier; 2022 Turquoise Circuit Finals qualifier; 2021 College National Finals Rodeo.
Family: parents Shannon and Billy Boy Benevides and Justin Kalawaia

Team Roping – Jake Clay and Kollin VonAhn

Jake Clay and Kollin VonAhn made the most of muddy conditions.
The team roping duo roped their steer in 4.3 seconds to win the rodeo and a check for $4,075 each.
“It was muddy, raining, cold, all of the above,” VonAhn remembered. “I told Jake, it doesn’t matter if we catch or miss, we’re still going to get muddy. We just as well sing in the rain and get after it and win something for our trouble.”
He compared their run to a Hail Mary pass. “There isn’t any second guessing,” he said. “You’re dang sure down to where you’re trying to take as fast a shot as possible.”
Jake didn’t mind getting wet, either. “Everyone had their ropes under their trailers, out of the rain, and their raincoats on, and I was like, I’m going to get wet, so whatever.”
World champ VonAhn has roped in Phillipsburg nearly every year for the last twenty; it’s a must for him the first weekend of August. “You’ve got Phillipsburg, Abilene, Dodge City, and Sidney, Iowa, all at that time. Phillipsburg is one of the better rodeos for us, as far as team roping.”
And he complimented his header. “Jake’s a fast header that can reach,” he said. “He hit the barrier and went at the steer. He was dang sure aggressive.”
Kollin:
First buckle he won: A Grass Roots team roping buckle (a youth event associated with the USTRC) when he was 9. “I still have that buckle.”
Favorite snack: “At times, I’ll dang sure have a sweet tooth, but for a snack, I’ll eat peanuts or something of that sort.”
Rodeo accomplishments: 2015 world champion; 5x Wrangler NFR qualifications; 3x Wrangler NFR average winner (2009, 2013, 2015).
Family: wife Angie Meadors; daughter Steele
Jake:
First buckle he won: A dummy roping buckle as a youngster. “My parents would haul me around to all the ropings back then. My dad would rope and I’d go to the dummy ropings.”
Favorite snack: Airhead Extreme Bites. “They’re kind of sour but sweet, too.”
Rodeo accomplishments: 2023 Wrangler NFR qualifier; 2021 Prairie Circuit Finals Rodeo winner
Family: parents Dwayne and Julana Clay.

Saddle Bronc Riding - Trent Burd

Trent Burd won the Phillipsburg saddle bronc riding title with a score of 85 points on Beutler and Son’s Wound Up.
The 25 year old had a good year last year, winning money in Vernon, Texas; Strong City, Bennington, Manhattan, Eureka and Longford, Kan., and Ponca City and Elk City, Okla., along with his first place finish in Phillipsburg.
A native of Emporia, Kan., he grew up ranch bronc riding with his uncle and aunt, competing in ranch rodeos. He decided to attend Panhandle State University in Goodwell, Okla., to learn to ride saddle broncs.
Switching from ranch bronc riding to pro rodeo saddle bronc riding was a challenge. “I had heck, making my feet come back.
My feet wanted to stay forward, like in a working saddle.” But he perfected his trade. He has qualified four times to the College National Finals Rodeo but only competed there twice, due to the pandemic one year and a knee injury the other year. Throughout the winter, he welds at a metal fabrication shop in Concordia, Kan.
First buckle he won: At age 14 for winning the ranch bronc riding.
Rodeo accomplishments: 4x Prairie Circuit Finals Rodeo qualifier; 2023 Prairie Circuit reserve saddle bronc riding champion
Favorite snack food: No Man’s Land pepper flavored beef jerky
Family: fiancée Taylor Lagasse; they will marry in November.

Tie-Down Roping - Denton Oestmann

Denton Oestmann’s tie-down roping win in Phillipsburg came at the right time.
The Auburn, Neb., cowboy had been in a slump, having won no money for several weeks, when he made an 8.0 second run to win the rodeo and a check for $3,548.
“Everything just kind of came together when it needed to, in apretty bad way,” he said. “I had gone a couple weeks without winning a dollar.”
He almost didn’t compete in Phillipsburg, thinking he’d stay home instead. But a good friend talked him into going, and he’s glad he did.
“Phillipsburg really broke the slump. It’s a good rodeo to break the slump at.”
The 24 year old cowboy rode a nine-year-old sorrel named Short Stack, a horse he’s owned for the past four years. Short Stack is his only calf horse for now. “He’s my one and only,” Denton said. “We get along pretty good together. He’s not the easiest horse to ride. He’s a little bit tight, but if a guy gets along with him, he can win on him pretty good.”
The two-piece buckle he won in Phillipsburg is special, and he made a belt for it and wears it as a dress belt. “I’d seen those buckles before,” he said. “You don’t really see very many rodeos that give those, so it was dang sure cool.”
His win in Phillipsburg prompted him to continue his rodeo season. “If I hadn’t won that rodeo, I wouldn’t have gone to the circuit finals. I would have stayed home, worked, and rode colts the rest of the summer, and called it quits. After Phillipsburg, everything started clicking.
Sometimes, it seems like, no matter what you do, you can’t get out of a slump. Things don’t go your way. If you ride the wave long enough, it will turn around.”
First buckle he won: A mutton bustin’ buckle at age five, at a regional rodeo where his mom and dad were competing
Rodeo accomplishments: 2x Prairie Circuit Finals Rodeo qualifier (2022-2023)
Favorite snack food: Nerds Gummy Clusters
Family: Parents Jeff and Stacey Oestmann

Barrel Racing – Hailey Kinsel

There’s a yellow horse that loves the Phillipsburg rodeo.
Sister, owned and ridden by world champion barrel racer Haley Kinsel, won Kansas Biggest Rodeo for the second time within two years.
In 2023, she rounded the barrels in 16.75 seconds; two years prior, she made a 16.61 second run, winning the rodeo again and setting an unofficial record as the second fastest time on a standard pattern at a regular season rodeo.
Kinsel, Cotulla, Texas, has always been congratulatory towards the arena conditions in Phillipsburg.
“We love rodeos with great ground,” she posted on social mediafollowing her 2023 win. “Thank you, KS Biggest Rodeo, and thank you Ricky Solida!"
At thirteen years of age, Sister is not Hailey’s fulltime rodeo horse; she has other horses she rides.
But she chose to ride Sister in Phillipsburg, one of twenty pro rodeos at which Sister was her mount last year. Of those 20 rodeos, Hailey won money at seventeen of them.
Rodeo accomplishments: 4x world champion barrel racer (2018-2020, 2022); 7x Wrangler NFR qualifications
Family: parents Dan and Leslie Kinsel.

Bull Riding – Ernie Courson

Backflip Ernie Courson had a good reason to make his signature move, a backflip off the bucking chutes, after his 90 point ride in Phillipsburg last August.
The Okeechobee, Fla. cowboy had won himself the gold buckle and $3,666 in earnings, with his ride on the Beutler and Son bull Moody Muley.
He had drawn the bull at a rodeo a few months prior, but due to the funeral of a family member, he hadn’t gotten on him.
The bull “did everything I hoped he would do,” he said. “He came out, turned back into my hand, stayed in there long enough that I could make the whistle, and I stepped off, did a backflip, heard I was 90, and that made it even better.”
At that point, he was in the top fifteen in the world standings, the coveted place for qualifying for the Wrangler NFR. A month later, he broke his collarbone at a rodeo in Kennewick, Wash., taking him out of competition and the chance to make his first National Finals.
He has the mentality of a rodeo competitor: don’t look back. “My wife tells me all the time, ‘I don’t know anybody who can keep pushing forward as hard as you do, because you never look back, you look forward.’” A big fan of JB Mauney, Ernie goes by JB’s quote: “’Ain’t nobody going to give a shit about what happened yesterday.’ If I buck off, I don’t even think about it.”
First buckle he won: for riding three bulls in 2007 at the All Florida Junior Rodeo Association Finals. It’s also why he has long hair. “My dad made a bet with me. He told me my hair was getting too long and I had to ride all three of my bulls that weekend” in order to keep his hair long. Erie was 13 years old; he hasn’t cut his hair since then.
Favorite snack: Takis. “I can eat a quarter of the bag and then I have to set them aside” because of how hot they are.
Rodeo accomplishments: 2x Southeastern Circuit Finals champion (2021-2022); 4x Southeastern Circuit Finals rodeo qualifier.
Family: wife Liz; sons Trent and Ryder