ALVA, Okla. – Jaci Traul put a little more student into her role as a student-athlete during her performance this past weekend at the Colby (Kansas) Community College rodeo.
Traul took a cerebral approach to her job and came away with the breakaway roping championship. She roped her first calf in 2.5 seconds to finish the opening round in a three-way tie for fifth place, then stopped the clock in 2.3 seconds to win the championship round and the aggregate title. The 130 points she earned in northwest Kansas pushed her to a tie for second place in the Central Plains Region standings.
“I knew going into the long-go that I drew one of the better calves but that he was going to try and he was probably going to go right, like he did,” said Traul, a senior from Fort Scott, Kansas. “My game plan was to just knock the barrier out and put it on him with my first shot, and that’s what we did right before he took off to the right.
“Coming back into the short-go, I knew with that set of girls and those calves that it was probably going to be fairly tight. I just made it my goal and made it my mindset that I was going to try to put a time on the board where they knew they were going to have to beat me.”
It was the right call at the right time.
“My initial goal this season was to get out ahead of them coming into the fall and knowing when we end the fall we’ll be coming into the spring, so I am very excited that we were able to get some points on the board pretty quickly this season,” she said.
Traul led the way for the Rangers, which featured 11 competitors in the championship round. The women, who finished sixth in the team standings, also had goat-tiers Payton Dingman of Pryor, Oklahoma (third); Dale Lee Forman of Highmore, South Dakota (fifth); Savannah Greenfield of Lakeview, Oregon (eighth); and Morgan Poust of Hughesville, Pennsylvania (12th) in the final performance.
The Rangers finished third in the men’s team race, led by senior Emmett Edler of State Center, Iowa; he finished second in steer wrestling and 10th in tie-down roping. He was joined by fellow calf-roper Kerry Duvall of Oakdale, California, who placed fourth. In bulldogging, Hazen Sparks of Talihina, Oklahoma, finished sixth, Grady Aasby of Highmore was 10th, and Jacob Haren of Callaway, Nebraska, was 11th. Team roping heeler Evan Barrios of Crescent, Oklahoma, finished fifth while roping with Garrett Novotony of Oklahoma State University.
Northwestern has had two champions successive weeks to kick start the 2024-25 Central Plains campaign; a week before, Edler won the all-around title in Manhattan, Kansas, so Traul was excited to get her name on that leaderboard.
“My horse is kind of a freak of nature,” she said of Jerry, a 17-year-old bay gelding. “I bought him from some really good family friends of ours, and he was just a heel horse when we bought him. They were kind of roping some calves on him to see where he was at, and I was in a situation with horses and needed something, and it just worked out that he fell into my lap. He has exceeded all of the expectations I could have ever had.”
Being well-mounted is important in rodeo, and time-event contestants understand the importance of having a trusted equine partner in their corners. Jerry wasn’t the only soul who helped Traul out when it was time to compete, though. Cali Griffin is the Rangers coach, taking over the program this season, and her work with the team members is already showing dividends.
“I was ecstatic when we found out Cali was coming, because she’s known me since I was about 9 years old,” Traul said. “I honestly credit a lot of my roping to Cali, so when she came to Alva, I was over the moon. Having her back in my corner 24/7, I think, has really helped my mental game. Also knowing that one of the people who really put the love for this sport in my heart is with me every day also helps a ton.”