Team Montana 5th at NHSRF
ROCK SPRINGS, Wyo. — Josie Robbins of Dillon and Wyatt Warneke of Great Falls are top-five rodeo hands who in turn led Team Montana to place fifth in the World Standings for the National High School Rodeo Association Finals that concluded Sunday.
Robbins was fifth in goat tying and Warneke’s 80-point ride in Sunday’s Short Go held up for fifth in bareback. Another Dillon cowboy, Ryder Gaasch, clocked 11.29 seconds in steer wrestling to place sixth.
Levi Noyes of Sarpy — a small community about halfway between Hardin and Colstrip — — placed eighth in the saddle bronc standings.
Montana had 48 athletes at the NHSRA Finals, who qualified by finishing in the top four at the state finals June 2-7 at Kalispell’s Majestic Valley Arena.
The Montana High School Finals return to the arena next June 8-13; the 2026 NHSRF will be in Lincoln, Nebraska next July. This year it drew 1,779 contestants and 2,169 entries from six countries: Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Mexico, Guatemala and the United States.
During the NHSRF two complete go-rounds are held, at the conclusion of go-round number 2 the top 20 finishers in each event qualify to compete in the short-go for one more shot to rise to the top. Browning’s Tahj Wells made it in the bull riding with his ride in the first go-round.
Go round awards are presented to the top ten in the first two go-rounds and the short-round.
Montana go-round #1 awards:
Ryder Gaasch, Dillon: First in Steer Wrestling
Josie Robbins, Dillon: Sixth in the Goat Tying
Colton Haase, East Helena: Fifth in Saddle Bronc
Tahj Wells, Browning: Eighth in Bull Riding
Leighton Lafromboise, Helena: Ninth in Bareback
Go-round #2 awards
Paisley Verhelst, Pryor: Third in Breakaway Roping
Short Go Qualifiers:
Josie Robbins, Dillon, Goat Tying: 7.46 (5th in world)
Colton Haase, East Helena, Saddle Bronc: No Score
Levi Noyes, Sarpy, Saddle Bronc: 69 (8th in world)
Ryder Gaasch, Dillon, Steer Wrestling: 11.29 (6th in world)
Wyatt Warneke, Great Falls, Bareback: 80 (5th in world)
AJ Swenson, Huntley, Steer Wrestling: No time
Tahj Wells, Browning, Bull Riding: No Score