RODEO: Kalispell's Schmid 7th in performance at National H.S. Finals
<p>Heidi Schmid outside her home on Wednesday, June 24, 2015, west of town near Smith Valley. (Brenda Ahearn/Daily Inter Lake)</p>
GILLETTE, Wyo. — Kalispell’s Heidi Schmid finished seventh in the fifth performance of pole bending at the National High School Finals Rodeo on Tuesday night at the CAM-PLEX Event Facility.
Schmid, who qualified for the second straight year, finished in 20.941 seconds, a fraction behind performance winner Kathryn Todd of Oklahoma, who finished in 20.245.
Louisiana’s Brooklyn Gunter leads the overall standings with a run of 20.098 earlier on Tuesday. Schmid is 34th overall, competing in her second attempt on Thursday morning.
The Montana girls team was in 12th place after the fourth performance and the boys team in 11th. Melstone’s Sage Newman is the overall leader in saddle bronc after Tuesday’s performances and Volberg’s Jess Lockwood the leader in bull riding.
Lockwood, a regular on the Professional Bull Riders Built Ford Tough Series ranked 15th in the world, is competing in his final high school rodeo. He won the Montana State High School Finals Rodeo three times but has fallen short of a national championship in his three previous trips to the NHSFR.