Featuring more than 1,650 contestants from 43 states, five Canadian Provinces and Australia, the three local competitors will be battling for more than $200,000 in prizes and over $350,000 in college scholarships.
Suckla, an incoming junior at Dolores High School, is the lone member of the group with previous finals experience. She qualified in the junior high finals for barrel racing when she was in seventh grade, but this will be her first appearance at the high school finals and she’ll be competing in breakaway roping.
“It gives you confidence when you’ve already made it before, even in a different event,” she explained. “I’m definitely still a little bit nervous. It is high stakes, but it does ease it and calm it a little bit that you’ve been there before and that the lights won’t blind you this time.”
Leading up to the national finals, Suckla worked with her parents and roping coach – indoors and out.
“I rope every day to prepare for this,” she said. “I have a dummy inside my house and I go in every night after roping and rope the dummy to make myself better and work on different things that I can work on without my horse.”
Suckla will represent the New Mexico High School Rodeo Association at the finals after finishing fourth in the state standings with 75.50 points. Her first two runs are scheduled for Tuesday morning and Thursday afternoon, with the top 20 contestants moving on to the short round.
“My main goal is to go out there and rope two calves very well and hopefully make it back to the short round and rope my third calf just as well,” she said. “To just go out there and catch and not bobble and just make three of my best runs.”
After finishing in third place with 70.50 points at the Colorado state finals, 2016 Durango graduate Stormi Pitman will represent the Colorado State High School Rodeo Association in cutting at the national level.
Pitman has qualified for the national finals in the past, but this will be her first time attending and competing in the event. However, she’s no stranger to big time competition, and said that she is more excited than nervous to get started in Gillette.
“I’ve been to some big rodeos before,” she explained. “I’ve been to big races and been up against past and current world champions, so it’s not new. It will be new for the cutting against that type of competition, but not for me in general.”
Pitman has been working with her trainer in order to prepare for the finals, and she also competed in the International Finals Youth Rodeo in Shawnee, Oklahoma just days prior to the finals.
Pitman is scheduled for runs on Sunday afternoon and Saturday morning, and her goal is to advance to the short round.
Kody Gregory, a 2016 Dolores graduate, will represent the Arizona High School Rodeo Association as the number one bareback qualifier after finishing the season with 106 points.
Gregory said that he has participated in rodeo for as long as he can remember, but that this was his first year competing in the high school association.
“It’s really exciting and it definitely means a lot,” he said after qualifying for the finals in his first official season. “I’m ready to go. I’m excited and ready to ride, for sure.”
Leading up to the finals, Gregory said that he has been working out every day and putting in time on his spur board in order to fine-tune his form and technique.
He will begin the finals with a run on Tuesday morning, with his second run coming on Thursday afternoon.
“Ultimately, a national title is what I’m gunning for,” he said. “But if I could just get my horses covered and make it to the short round it would be a dream come true.”
