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Durango roper snags share of 6th at International Youth Finals Rodeo

Van Soelen scores unplanned Las Vegas berth

Fifth place after all the dust had settled and points had been tabulated from the Colorado State High School Rodeo Association’s 2015-16 season might have been acceptable to most team ropers.

But knowing only the top four pairs would qualify for this week’s National High School Finals Rodeo – as he’d done last summer – Cade Van Soelen, 18, didn’t really want “acceptable” going into what usually serves as NHSFR-bound riders’ and ropers’ last and best tune-up for the grand gathering.

“I firmly believed I wasn’t going to do that again,” the home schooled 2016 graduate said Monday after getting back from the week-long International Finals Youth Rodeo in Shawnee, Oklahoma.

Van Soelen and Ryley Beach of Fruita Monument High School pushed themselves and sat in second place through two go-rounds with a total time of 12 seconds. They tested the rest of the field, including Texas’ Laremie Allen and Ross Ashford, who led at 11.5 seconds through two rounds.

Van Soelen, the youngest of Tom and Cheri’s four rodeo-decorated sons, and his partner clocked 5.7 seconds – dead even with Allen and Ashford in last Monday’s second performance on their first-go attempt inside the Heart of Oklahoma Exposition Center’s West Arena.

“First run, I didn’t know much about the cattle or the score, really,” Van Soelen said. “I just watched a couple teams in front of me go. And I saw my start, had a good run … just did what felt right.”

Three days later, with Van Soelen again heading and Beach heeling, another solid time of 6.3 seconds came in the second go’s fourth performance, keeping the pressure on Allen and Ashford.

Ashford was part of the 2014 Texas High School Rodeo Association Finals’ record-setting (4.12) tandem who’d posted 5.8 prior to picking up their pace when it mattered most.

The Lone Star Staters’ 5.0 in last Friday’s decisive third short-go was the fastest by any of the 15 pairs vying for top billing, while an unlucky 11.8 dropped Van Soelen and Beach to sixth.

With cattle getting worn-down, rodeo organizers swapped them out for the short-go.

“So I didn’t have a clue what my steer was like,” Van Soelen said. “I saw a pretty decent start – may have been a hair late – and I just did whatever felt right, got it on him. My partner roped two feet but slipped a leg. I think he got a little excited, went to the woods a little quick.”

Their work earned them more than $2,800 as well as points for Colorado Junior Rodeo Association No. 1, which finished eighth out of 15 teams. The IFYR is reputed to presently be the richest youth rodeo with more than $200,000 awarded.

“We’ve known each other since eighth grade, so about four, five years,” Van Soelen said, of his long-distance affiliation with Beach, an accomplished roper in his own right. “But we never did once get to practice with each other before we went to any of these rodeos.”

Something not noted on results sheets, and something that, after narrowly missing out on an NHSFR return and making a worthy bid for an IFYR buckle, could end up being quite a consolation prize for the Laramie County Community College-bound Van Soelen. By finishing in the top six of 208 teams, he qualifier for the Junior National Finals Rodeo Dec. 1-10 in Las Vegas.

“Not entirely sure what it is,” Van Soelen quipped, “but they’re making a pretty big deal about it.”

But, in the meantime, there will be plenty of work to do back in La Plata County for Van Soelen, whether helping with his parents’ Rocky Mountain Irish Blacks cattle company on County Road 228, or for another regional competition, or for his upcoming relocation to Wyoming. He plans to study agricultural business at LCCC.

“I’m going to plan on rodeo as much as possible,” he said.



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