North Platte, Neb. – June 12, 2017 – There’s some pretty fine talent that will ride, wrestle, rope and race in the Buffalo Bill Rodeo this week.

Some of that talent is in the form of champion cowboys and cowgirls, and some of it is from the weekend warriors, the rodeo athletes who have career and family obligations and can’t rodeo full time.

Either way, fans at the Buffalo Bill Rodeo at the Wild West Arena on the north side of North Platte will see some of the best cowboys and cowgirls going down the road.

One of the champions fans will see is a home-state cowboy. Riley Pruitt, a tie-down roper from Gering, won the average (the fastest combined time on ten runs) at the 2016 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo (WNFR). Pruitt, who is 25 years old, won the 2015 Buffalo Bill Rodeo with a time of 17.0 seconds on two head.

His ride is a seventeen-year-old dun named Chip, who carried him to his win in North Platte two years ago, and at the WNFR last year. Chip makes Pruitt’s job easy. “I know exactly what he’s going to do every time, which makes my job so much easier. He’s going to score, run, stop, give me three steps back, and if I draw a good one, I know I can win on him.” Chip has had some time off, to rest before the busiest part of the rodeo season starts, and Pruitt has a good idea what he might do when he’s rested. “He’s a funny horse. When he’s fresh he’ll try to buck me off.”

As soon as North Platte is over Pruitt and his traveling partner, tie-down roper Chase Williams from Stephenville, Texas, will hit the road, competing at Reno, Nev., Prescott, Arizona, Livingston and Red Lodge, Mont., Cody, Wyo., St. Paul, Ore., and Greeley, Colo. That’s the schedule through July fourth. Even though he makes his living in rodeo, he’s a homebody, and when things aren’t going smoothly, he loves to be home. “When things are struggling, when I go two or three weeks and draw bad or rope bad, I come home.” His wife, Jenna, also helps. “She keeps me a little bit sane.”

Another Husker contestant at the rodeo is Valentine’s Trula Churchill. Raised in Stonewall, Okla., the barrel racer moved to Nebraska in 2000 when she married former steer wrestler Linn Churchill.

A three-time WNFR qualifier, she will ride her horse Worm, whose registered name is A Streak of Rita. Worm, who was raised by Churchill, is twelve years old and has carried the cowgirl to her three trips to the WNFR, three trips to the Canadian National Finals Rodeo, and countless wins.

A teacher for twenty years, Churchill, who taught at a two-room school south of Valentine, quit her teaching job in 2011 when she realized Worm was an exceptional barrel racing horse and she could rodeo full time on him.

He has a unique personality, Churchill said. “He loves his job, and he tries to win every time. He’s special to me because he has let me not have a real job.” She and Worm compete every spring in California, coming home in the summer and returning to California for their circuit finals in the fall.

Worm is picky about where he competes, and Churchill knows his favorite arenas and his not-so-favorites. If he doesn’t like an arena, he won’t run well. If he does, he runs his heart out. “There are some places that he really likes, and there are some he doesn’t like at all. I’ve figured out which places he doesn’t do well at, and we don’t go to those.” Churchill hasn’t competed in North Platte since 2000, before Worm was around, so she doesn’t know how he’ll react to the arena, but she thinks he’ll like the rodeo. “I have a gut feeling,” she said.

Mullen’s Steven Dent will kick off the biggest part of his rodeo season at North Platte.

The bareback rider figures he’s competed at the Buffalo Bill Rodeo nine of the last 12 years, tying for the saddle bronc riding title in 2011 (with Luke Rush, Clay Center, Kan.). He’s been to the WNFR seven times, and hopes to qualify again this year. He hasn’t rodeoed much so far, but will ride in Lexington, Kentucky on June 16 then ride in North Platte the next night. After North Platte, he’s on the rodeo road for a month and a half, competing in Reno, Nev., Springdale, Ark., Prescott, Ariz., Oakley, Utah, Greeley, Colo., St. Paul, Ore., Livingston, Mont., Cody, Wyo., and Killdeer, N.D., all by July fourth.

The North Platte rodeo is the closest pro rodeo for Dent, and it’s like his hometown show. “It’s pretty much where everybody in Mullen goes to, if they go to town, and there’s always a bunch of people there that I know. Almost the whole community of Mullen goes to the rodeo. It’s nice when the crowd gets excited when you ride.”

Dent and his wife Kay have three children: son Cylas, who is four, and daughters Emri, two, and Dailie, three months. They ranch near Mullen. Dent is ranked 24th in the pro rodeo world standings.

Four-hundred sixty-four contestants will compete in North Platte this week. The tie-down roping, team roping and steer wrestling is two head, meaning each contestant gets two runs. The other events: bareback riding, saddle bronc riding, bull riding, and barrel racing, are one head.

The rodeo begins at 8 pm each night. Rodeo clown and barrelman Cody Sosebee will entertain, and trick roper Loop Rawlins, a semi-finalist on the 2014 season of America’s Got Talent, will perform. Bullfighters Quirt Hunt, Gordon, and Wacey Munsell, Ulysses, Kan., will work the bull riding, and Randy Corley, who will be inducted into the 2017 Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame, will announce. Beutler and Son Rodeo Co., Elk City, Okla., will provide the bucking horses and bulls.

Slack, the extra competition that doesn’t fit into the performances, will be at 8 am on June 14 and 15 and is free to the public.

Tickets for the rodeo can be purchased at the NebraskalandDays office, online at NebraskalandDays.com, and at the gate. For more information, visit the website or call the office at 308.532.7939.

Nebraska cowboys and cowgirls by event who are entered at the Buffalo Bill Rodeo Note: Cowboys and cowgirls may not compete due to personal or horse injury or other reasons.

Bareback Riding
Garrett Shadbolt, Merriman
Nate McFadden, Elsmere
Logan Glendy, Oconto
Steven Dent, Mullen

Steer Wrestling
Justen Nokes, Juniata
Dan Barner, Hershey
Trevor Haake, Grand Island
Jeff Johnston, Thedford
Brett Gumb, Burwell
Del Ray Kraupie, Bridgeport
Jake Kraupie, Bridgeport
Scott Schaefer, Beatrice
Collin Chytka, Broken Bow
Weston Winkers, Nelson
Tyler Kester, York
Jeff Richardson, Kearney
Logan McDonald, Hemingford
Mike Stephen, Springview
Ty Melvin, Arthur
Gabe Taylor, Valentine
Kyle Whitaker, Chambers
Richard Coats, Hastings
Dru Melvin, Hebron

Tie-down Roping
Cody Nye, Alliance
Miles Garwood, Atkinson
Patrick Martin, Callaway
Riley Pruitt, Gering
Levi Fisher, Hershey
J.T. Adamson, Cody
Todd Flinn, Newman Grove

Saddle Bronc Riding
Triston Eklund, Valentine
Jeff Cover, Ashby

Team Roping
Jeff Johnston, Thedford
Todd Hollenbeck, Long Pine
Reece Weber, Valentine
Slade Thorpe, Valentine
Dustin Harris, O’Neill
Matt Kasner, Cody
Riley Pruitt, Gering
Tucker White, Hershey
Travis Warren, Mullen
Levi Tyan, Wallace
Blaine Finney, Ainsworth
Brady Graff, Ainsworth
Trent Barrett, North Platte
Jake Pelton, North Platte
Brent Reichmuth, Humphrey
Cooper Brott, Gothenburg

Barrel Racing
Lindsey Evers, Plattsmouth
Mika Drews, Thedford
June Holeman, Arcadia
Mary Cameron-Dugan, Greeley
Bailey Lord, Potter
Jordan Swan, York
Lindsey Kester, York
Jamie Chaffin, Burwell
Morgan Peterson, Arthur
Cheryl Wallace, Broken Bow
Jessica Leach, Rockville
Chandler Markel, Morrill
Becky Pearson, Broken Bow
Deb Cox, Mullen
Diane Axmann, Loup City
Carrie Sutton, Ashby
Trula Churchill, Valentine
Carla Jensen, Kearney
Jimi Hurlbut, Maywood
Kelli Reichmuth, Humphrey

Bull Riding
Tyler Viers, Comstock
Ethan Lesiak, Clarks
Lane Gambill, Johnstown
Bart Miller, Pleasanton