McAdow, Sherwood split breakaway roping win
Jul. 20—CHEYENNE — Taya McAdow considers herself a "weekend, circuit cowgirl," meaning she isn't a full-time breakaway roper. When she does rodeo, she typically stays within the Professional Rodeo Cowboys' Association's Mountain States circuit.
McAdow will hit up the big rodeos near her home of Keenesburg, Colorado. Cheyenne Frontier Days is one of those events.
She made her stop in the Capital City count, stopping the clock in 3.6 seconds to split the win in the first round of breakaway roping qualifying for the 126th anniversary Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo.
"I'm glad to get the first one down and have the opportunity to come back for the tournament and get a chance at all that money," McAdow said. "I won the (wild card) round last year, which got me into the tournament. It's nice not to have to sweat it out this year.
"Any time you come to a rodeo like this with a long start and a hand-pulled barrier, you have to score good and draw good, and I did both. I drew a pretty good calf and used that."
McAdow shared the win with Shawnee Sherwood of San Tan Valley, Arizona. Sherwood could not be found for an interview after her run.
"I work for a feed company, Hubbard Feed, most of the week, so it's nice to take a day off and come to some of these rodeos," McAdow said. "The nice thing about Cheyenne is I can rope and then go home and still work half-a-day if I want to."
Sloan Anderson of Whitehorse, South Dakota, had the third-fastest time of the first batch of qualifiers.
Sage Kohr of Gillette was one of the first cowgirls out of the box during qualifying and set the tone with a 4-second run. She was confident that time wouldn't hold on to first. Kohr was correct, but still split fourth with Tayler Bradley of Goldendale, Washington.
Kohr's main horse suffered an injury earlier this summer, so she borrowed her brother, Stratton Kohr's tie-down roping horse Boone.
"He's a really nice horse, and I'm lucky my brother let me borrow him," Sage Kohr said. "What would you do without your family? I have a great support system, and everything worked out."
There were 200 breakaway ropers entered at CFD. It divided the groups and took the top 30 times from each into the tournament.
Anna Jorgenson of Watford City, North Dakota, turned in a time of 3.7 seconds to take top honors in the second qualifying group. Taylor Hanchey of Carmine, Texas, was second at 3.9 seconds.
The remaining 140 cowgirls will return for the wild card round starting at 7 a.m. today. The top 12 times from that competition earn bids into CFD's tournament, which starts with Saturday afternoon's performance.
Jeremiah Johnke is the WyoSports editor. He can be reached at jjohnke@wyosports.net or 307-633-3137. Follow him on Twitter at @jjohnke.
