Sundell takes over world standings lead with win in Nampa, Idaho
Courtesy PRCA

 
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – These are heady times to be an Iowa cowboy.
Paul Mayo of Grinnell was inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame earlier this month, Kollin VonAhn of Sac City is the reigning world champion team roping heeler, and then there is Wade Sundell.

Sundell, from the teeming metropolis of Boxholm, Iowa (population 215), took over first place in the saddle bronc riding world standings by winning the July 20-24 Snake River Stampede in Nampa, Idaho.

Sundell tied for third place in the first round and won the finals with an 86-point ride on Burch Rodeo’s Vitalix Hippie Chick to win the two-head average over Cody DeMoss by five points (170-165).

“I knew if I won it all at Nampa, I was pretty sure of moving to No. 1,” Sundell said, “but I tried not to think about it too much. I just want to ride broncs, have fun and let (the world standings situation) work itself out.

“When I was back in the pack (33^rd in mid-March), I just looked at the person ahead of me in the standings and went to work trying to pick them off one at a time. So much good has happened lately, and now to move into the No. 1 spot for the first time in my career … I don’t know what to think or say.”

Sundell was happy to draw Hippie Chick for the final round at Nampa because she was a horse he knew and on whom he’d enjoyed a recent success – an 83-point ride in the Wild Card round at RodeoHouston.

“It seemed like she bucked even harder this time,” Sundell said. “I dang sure had to bear down. She gives you good effort every time you nod your head, and you know you can place well if you do your part.”

The $7,753 he earned at Nampa was enough to push him past the injured Rod Hay of Canada into first place, and with another check at Joseph, Ore., Sundell moved his season earnings total to $78,323.

If he were to carry his lead all the way through the Dec. 2-11 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, Sundell would become the first Iowa roughstock cowboy to win a world championship since Mayo in 1970.

Does he see Mayo’s recent Hall of Fame induction as any sort of omen?
“That would be all right with me if it were,” Sundell said.
Team roping is the only one of Trevor Brazile’s events for which he does not have a gold buckle, the missing piece in an unprecedented career grand slam – all-around, tie-down roping, steer roping and team roping.

If he wins the team-roping gold buckle this year, mark down the week of July 22-26 as the turning point.
Brazile and partner Patrick Smith, the 2005 world champion heeler, won the Snake River Stampede three-head average with a time of 15.4 seconds and finished second at the Days of ’47 Rodeo in Salt Lake City to earn a total of $8,243 each.

The parlay moved Brazile to fourth place in the heading standings and Smith to fourth among heelers. Brazile leads the PRCA World Standings in the all-around and tie-down roping and is ninth in steer roping as he tries to complete his record-breaking eighth all-around world championship season.

“He’s as good as any of them,” ProRodeo Hall of Fame inductee Dean Oliver told the Idaho Statesman. “They say he works at it more than anyone. With his ability, (combined with hard) work and good horses, he (should have) several good years yet. He’ll win more all-around titles than anybody.”

The other champions at Nampa were bareback rider Clint Cannon (173 points on two head), steer wrestler Kyle Hughes (12.3 seconds on three head), tie-down roper Adam Gray (23.7 seconds on three head), barrel racer Sherry Cervi (31.76 seconds on two runs) and bull rider Steve Woolsey (163 points on two head).

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