Cole Reiner finally cashed his first check at the 2022 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo in the third round Saturday night at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. The Buffalo bareback bronc rider scored 83.5 points on J Bar J’s Night Lizard to earn $7,462, but dropped to third in the world standings after leader Jess Pope won the round with an 86.5.
Reiner entered the NFR leading Pope by nearly $1,000 but now trails the Waverly, Kansas, cowboy by more than $50,000 and current No. 2 Kaycee Feild by nearly $4,000.
Two other cowboys with Wyoming ties — Tanner Butner from Daniel and former Sheridan College cowboy Zeke Thurston — also earned money Saturday night. Both saddle bronc riders tied for sixth in the round with 87.0-point rides.
Thurston, a two-time world champ, is second in the NFR average with 260.0 points on three head. Butner, competing in his first NFR, is seventh in the average with 252.5 points on three head. Round 3 winner Lefty Holman leads the average with 264.0 points.
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Hillsdale’s Brody Cress tied for 14th in saddle bronc with a 79.0. He dropped to fourth in the world standings behind leader Sage Newman; Thurston is fifth in the standings and Butner is 14th.
Former Central Wyoming College bareback bronc rider Ty Breuer was 10th in the round with a 79.5.
And former Casper College team roper Trey Yates, along with partner Tyler Wade, placed eighth in the round with a 4.8-second run.
In addition to Pope and Holman, other Round 3 winners were bull riders JR Stratford and Garrett Smith, tie-down roper Cory Solomon, steer wrestler Stetson Jorgensen, team ropers Tanner Tomlinson and Patrick Smith and barrel racer Hailey Kinsel.
