Following Collegiate Success, Rodeo Competitors Turn Focus From CNFR to NFR (2024)

For Weston Timberman, the first goal is now crossed off his list.

When the 2024 rodeo season started, the Columbus, Mont., bareback rider outlined all he wanted to accomplish over the next 12 months. Winning a second College National Finals Rodeo championship was a priority.

In 2023, Timberman won every round at CNFR, going a perfect 4-for-4 en route to his first championship for Clarendon College. Earlier this month, he repeated the feat to secure the crown again.

“It was awesome. Not a lot of people get a chance to go for it twice like that. I was super thankful to be put in that position and capitalize on it,” Timberman said.

But that list contains more than CNFR success.

Timberman has aspirations of making a splash at rodeo’s highest level, and after another year of college dominance, he’s built the mental momentum to make that possible.

Along with the requirements of competing at college rodeos, Timberman rode all winter and spring at Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association events throughout the country. The balancing act led to more than $44,000 in earnings and a spot in the top 15 of the PRCA world standings heading into the summer run .

“I think that my win at the College Finals is going to definitely play a big factor in making my first Finals,” Timberman said. “I’m on top of the world. You can’t beat where we’re sitting right now. I’m super stoked for sure.”

And Timberman isn’t alone.

Numerous collegiate competitors are in position to earn spots at CNFR and NFR in the same season, a feat that has proven difficult but not impossible.

Back in 1989, Ty Murray won the saddle bronc and all-round titles at CNFR before reaching the NFR as bareback and saddle bronc qualifier, earning enough that season to win the all-around world honor. More recently, Taos Muncy won the CNFR and PRCA world championship saddle bronc titles in the same year (2007).

Wacey Schalla has aspirations of following that roughstock lineage.

After CNFR bull riding and all-around titles for Clarendon College, he is 21st and fifth in those standings, respectively, on the PRCA side. The Arapaho, Okla., native also finished fifth at CNFR in bareback riding and is top 40 in the PRCA.

Back when he was 12-years old, Schalla and a friend developed a routine of watching NFR at night and jumping on five or more bucking animals the next morning, picturing the moment when they could compete at Thomas & Mack Arena.

That dream suddenly feels like a potential reality.

“It would be great to be another one of those guys in the rodeo record books like Stetson (Wright) and Ty Murray and all those guys,” Schalla said. “I want to keep winning money and staying healthy. I hope to see the yellow bucking chutes come December. That’s my goal.”

Kaden Profili is chasing something similar. As a first-year competitor in 2023, Profili cracked the top 40 of the PRCA world standings by the end of the season.

This year, things reached a whole new level thanks to his partnership with Brenten Hall, a veteran header with three NFR qualifications already to his credit.

The duo connected during jackpot events last winter and decided to team up for the 2024 PRCA season. Along with competing together at professional events, Profili also shined at the college level on his own, winning the heeler CNFR title in early June for Texas A&M University-Commerce.

Now, he’s sitting seventh in the heeler world standings, quickly approaching $50,000 in earnings. That gives the Jacksonville, Texas cowboy a legitimate shot of being a college and world champion in the same season.

Profili admits he’s learned a lot about professional rodeo in a very short period of time. But it’s an experience that has certainly been what he always hoped it would be.

“I knew when I started roping with Brenton that we’d have a pretty good chance of making the Finals,” Profili said. “That’s always been the dream of mine, to make the Finals since I was a kid, so I’m just out here trying to make it come true.”