By Julie Johansen
Three Emery High cowboys qualified to represent Team Utah at the National High School Rodeo Association Finals, including Kayson Jensen, Zeek Weber and Byron Christiansen. The finals were hosted in Lincoln, Nebraska during the week of July 18-24.
Jensen had two amazing bareback rides and Weber’s reining cow horse scores were close to the top. Christiansen rode all three saddle broncs and finished eighth in the nation. He went into the competition fourth in the state but finished ahead of the pack of Utah saddle bronc riders.
State high school teams traveled to compete from all 50 states as well as Mexico and Canada. There were two rounds of competition with four performances in each round and the top 20 competed in the final round on Saturday.
It was Christiansen’s consistency in scoring high enough on each ride to average out in eighth place overall.