{"id":133602,"date":"2026-06-16T20:39:50","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T02:39:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/ute-mountain-basin-rodeo-teams-sending-seven-athletes-to-national-championships\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T23:15:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T05:15:09","slug":"ute-mountain-basin-rodeo-teams-sending-seven-athletes-to-national-championships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/ute-mountain-basin-rodeo-teams-sending-seven-athletes-to-national-championships\/","title":{"rendered":"Ute Mountain, Basin Rodeo Teams sending seven athletes to national championships"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Cortez\u2019
Cortez\u2019 Jayleigh Gordanier rounds a barrel during a competition this spring for the Ute Mountain Rodeo team, composed off athletes in both high school and junior high. Gordanier looks forward to the National Junior High Finals Rodeo in Guthrie, Okla., this month. (Photo courtesy of Esther Rima)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

CORTEZ \u2013 For the fans that fill up rodeo arena stands across the country every summer and fall, they get to bear witness to just a few-second snapshots of the competitors\u2019 journeys. The athletes themselves know that their success in those opportunities originated from year-round dedication to their craft.<\/p>\n

The Ute Mountain and Basin Rodeo teams pride themselves on that hard-nosed dedication to the sport, and they\u2019ve built themselves quite a reputation as a result. The Ute Mountain and Basin teams are composed of youth riders from sixth-grade through high school in the Four Corners, with each group supporting a passionate group that\u2019s taken the Colorado high school and junior high circuits by storm.<\/p>\n

With the Colorado State Rodeo Association championships from late May in the books, seven different athletes from the two teams punched their tickets to their respective championships. From the Ute Mountain Rodeo team, high schoolers Kodi Mae Rima and Brileigh Gordanier join junior high rider Jayleigh Gordanier on the national level. Rima and Brileigh Gordanier took champion and reserve champion in pole bending, respectively, at the state championships to secure two of the coveted four places in Lincoln, Nebraska, at the end of July.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Jayleigh took home reserve champion honors in both barrel racing and pole bending at the junior high state championships to advance in both events and return to the national stage.<\/p>\n

In last year\u2019s National Junior High Finals Rodeo in pole bending, Jayleigh Gordanier and Rima posted an incredible showing for the Ute Mountain team, finishing third and 11th, respectively. Jayleigh also added a top-30 run in barrel racing. While she looks forward to another chance in both events at the National Junior High Finals Rodeo (June 21 to 27 in Guthrie, Oklahoma), Rima has moved up to the high school ranks, where she\u2019ll take on the field of nearly 200 competitors in pole bending in the Sandhills Global Events Center in the Cornhusker State over the week of July 19 to 25.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember meeting a whole bunch of new people \u2013 it\u2019s like a rodeo family,\u201d said Jayleigh of her previous nationals foray. \u201cThere were a lot of really good new experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n

She rode her 10-year-old horse Bling in both events, leading pole bending heading into the short round before taking her top-three final position.<\/p>\n

Even with dealing with an early-season shoulder injury, Jayleigh was able to bounce back with enough time off over the winter \u201cbucking hay\u201d to get herself ready for a big-time spring. While the injury limited the rising M-CHS freshman\u2019s ability to do breakaway and goat-tying, she persevered through her top two events to surge among the state leaders again.<\/p>\n

\u201cI stay off by myself,\u201d said Jayleigh about her pre-ride routine to help manage the nerves. \u201cAnd that helps me focus a lot. Bling\u2019s calm, but he\u2019s got a lot of \u2018try\u2019 in him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, older sister Brileigh \u2013 a rising junior at M-CHS \u2013 is relishing the opportunity to take in her first nationals experience,<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited but pretty nervous with the bright lights and amount of people,\u201d said the Colorado pole bending reserve champ of her opportunity to compete in front of a televised audience on the Cowboy Channel.<\/p>\n

After a slower fall season, Brileigh turned her racing up a notch in the spring, and climbed the state standings accordingly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started to really get my confidence back,\u201d said Brileigh, who enjoyed getting pushed by another of the state\u2019s elite within her own team. \u201cKodi Rima\u2019s like family to me, and it\u2019s great to make it to nationals with someone who I\u2019ve rodeoed so much with since we were young.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Cortez\u2019
Cortez\u2019 Brileigh Gordanier receives her award after a competition this spring for the Ute Mountain Rodeo team, composed off athletes in both high school and junior high. Gordanier looks forward to the National High School Finals Rodeo in Lincoln, Neb., in July. (Photo courtesy of Esther Rima)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cWe really put our heart into it,\u201d Brileigh said. \u201cSo to go one-two with Kodi was really cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

She recalls winning her first saddle on her 6-year-old horse Leo \u2013 a horse that she trained herself \u2013 and that victory really amped up her passion for the competitive side of the sport.<\/p>\n

She credits the big support network, including Ute Mountain Rodeo team parent Nikole Young as well as her parents and grandparents to help her achieve her lofty heights.<\/p>\n

For the Basin rodeo team, a quartet of riders look forward to their nationals pursuits \u2013 among them fellow pole bender Shylene Drumm from Durango, bareback rider Tucker Jacobson from Pagosa Springs, Cortez\u2019s Kelby Oliver in team roping and Olathe\u2019s Brinnley Ellis in breakaway roping.<\/p>\n

Jacobson \u2013 the 2026 Colorado bareback champ \u2013 took 29th in last year\u2019s NHSFR in the event, while Drumm returns as a national qualifier in both pole bending and goat tying after taking third in goat tying and fourth in pole bending at the Colorado championships. Oliver continues his strong rodeo career as he continues to pile up national appearances in the roping events dating back to his junior high days, while Ellis capped her impressive season with a third-place state finish.<\/p>\n

The balance of the Ute Mountain team was on full display throughout the season circuit \u2013 Rima earned fourth in rookie of the year standings and 12th in the all-around in her first year at the high school level. Brileigh didn\u2019t finish much behind Rima, taking 21st in the all-around as she looks forward to her NHSFR debut. The rodeo team based out of the Montezuma County Fairgrounds put their work in with weekly practices while traveling most weekends throughout the fall and spring seasons to develop their skills across the 14 different high school and junior high rodeo events.<\/p>\n

\"Kodi
Kodi Mae Rima competes in a pole bending competition for the Ute Mountain Rodeo team, composed off athletes in both high school and junior high. Rima looks forward to the National High School Finals Rodeo in Lincoln, Neb., in July. (Photo courtesy of Esther Rima)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Rising M-CHS senior Tanna Young finished in the top-35 in the state in goat tying, pole bending and team roping, and Makena Cressler finished top-35 in pole bending. On the boys side, Sage Tozer was top-35 in both tie-down and team roping, while Kason Bradshaw took on the bulls for the Ute Mountain squad. In the junior high ranks, Haygen Carlson finished 18th in the all-around to accompany Jayleigh (7th) inside the top 20. Miray Young ended the season top-30 in team roping while Benny Gordanier took ninth in rifle.<\/p>\n

With all of the excitement of the nationals rodeo still ahead, both the Ute Mountain and Basin rodeo teams have plenty to look forward to in the coming months when the new season starts. Along with returning plenty of its athletes for another year in the ring, Cortez will host its annual three-day high school rodeo over the weekend of Aug. 28 and 30 at the Montezuma County Fairgrounds to ignite the 2026-27 season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Area youth rodeo teams building the next generation for the sport<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":133603,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6313],"tags":[38,39,28,37,36,29,6419],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-133602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports-2","tag-dolores-high-school","tag-dove-creek-high-school","tag-headlines","tag-mancos-high-school","tag-montezuma-cortez-high-school","tag-newsletter","tag-tj-trueanthem"],"acf":[],"author_name":"Website Administrator","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133602"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133602\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135080,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133602\/revisions\/135080"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133602"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=133602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}