Meet the Member Emily Finney
story by Lindsay Humphrey Last summer, Emily changed her last name from Vinton to Finney when she married Doug. It was a match made at […]
story by Lindsay King
The son of a bareback rider and rodeo photographer, Whitten Hoover was destined to make a go out in the arena. “My dad rodeoed for most of his life, so I was just born into it,” said the Ainsworth, Nebraska, native about the man who rode bareback horses until 2002. “I started out in junior rodeos in the summer team roping, then I got on calves.” Whitten was hooked and in the seventh grade he added bull riding to complete his trifecta of high school events. His brother rode saddle bronc horses and Whitten decided he wanted to be the bull rider of the family. “Bareback just came a bit more natural to me, but I didn’t really care for bareback when I first started. I got dumped on my head almost every time.”
Whitten quickly got the hang of it as he made four trips to the NHSFR in the event and made two appearances at the CNFR. As a junior in high school (2007), Whitten won state finals. He finished in the top ten at nationals the year before and competed in a couple of short rounds. “I made the college finals my first two years and as a sophomore I finished tenth in the short round. That was probably my biggest and proudest accomplishment.” The previous year (2009), Whitten was rookie of the year in the M-SRA. After two years at Chadron State with Dustin Luper as his coach, Whitten decided it was time for a shot at the big leagues. “I learned a lot of new things from Dustin, he fine tuned my technique. He helped me move on to the next level.”
As Whitten makes his way between amateur and professional rodeos, he does his best to help the younger guys along the way. “The most important thing I tell other guys is to never stop learning.” Whitten said he never fully pursued the professional trail, but has been an avid competitor in the M-SRA and NSRA. “There are definitely some talented guys going to those rodeos, it is highly competitive.” What the bareback riding may lack in numbers, it more than makes up for in quality. “Not a lot of guys ride bareback anymore but the ones that do sure are tough. You can’t just slack off and hope to win.”
Pouring concrete for a living keeps Whitten in shape for riding. But he does try to work out on a regular basis just to keep his competitive edge. “I have a spur board that I work on a lot. Repetition is key. I also have a little machine called the masher that works my core and helps me practice my motion.” His motivation to stay healthy is about more than just riding well. “Traveling wears on a person more than the event does sometimes. But staying healthy is the number factor of making a ride fun. If you are sore and bummed up, it’s not fun and it just ends up being more like work.”
A shoulder surgery in the winter of 2014 allowed Whitten to get back to his full potential after taking the entire year off. He married Alanna that following summer. “My wife is super supportive, she is always pushing me to enter and knows how much I love and enjoy it.” Together, the couple has two daughters: Hadley, 3, and Weslee, 1. “I try to take the girls with me as much as possible, but it can be tough to watch them when I am trying to compete.” The other branch of Whitten’s support system is his parents and siblings. “They still follow me around and go to about as many rodeos as I enter. They have always been there for me.”
story by Lindsay Humphrey Last summer, Emily changed her last name from Vinton to Finney when she married Doug. It was a match made at […]
story by Lindsay Humphrey “It’s probably cliché, but rodeo isn’t just what we do it’s who we are,” said current M-SRA President Jason Schnoor. “I […]
story by Lindsay Humphrey “I’m just happy to be here and I’ve really had a lot of fun this summer,” said Lacey Camp after a […]
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Rodeo Life Magazine™ (ISSN 1934-5224) is located at P.O. Box 93598 Southlake, TX 76092. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Rodeo Life Media, P.O. Box 93598 Southlake, TX 76092
September 20, 2020
All-Around – Men’s
1 Lane Day $8,530.23
2 Jeff Johnston $7,246.83
3 Kyle Whitaker $5,292.63
4 Austin Hurlburt $5,097.91
5 Taylor Davis $1,748.76
6 Riley Wakefield $761.17
All-Around – Women’s
1 Ginalee Sinner $12,794.12
2 Brooke Jamison $9,472.45
3 Danielle Wray $7,126.15
4 Amber Coleman $5,459.04
5 Peyton Mentzer $3,456.19
6 Pam Hollenbeck $2,520.73
7 Shawnee Sherwood $2,408.62
8 Sydney Graff $1,700.97
9 BoDelle Mueller $1,409.90
10 Tracey Paulsen $1,407.28
11 Katie Haythorn $982.15
Bareback
1 Whitten Hoover $5,196.87
2 Tanner Rupprecht $4,665.05
3 Rob Keeney $3,861.60
4 Nick Schwedhelm $1,820.99
5 Spencer DeNaeyer $923.54
6 Logan Glendy $897.21
7 Riley Ryan $689.88
8 Cade Svoboda $307.28
Steer Wrestling
1 Chad VanCampen $5,880.65
2 Kyle Whitaker $4,377.68
3 Hoyt Kraeger $4,185.01
4 Tom Littel $4,118.32
5 Dru Melvin $3,968.52
6 Boyd Sawyer $3,958.68
7 Jeff Richardson $3,917.08
8 Reed Kraeger $3,541.28
9 Lane Day $3,098.07
10 Weston Winkers $3,038.76
11 Kris Rasmussen $2,306.12
12 Ben Robinson $2,287.30
13 Jeff Johnston $2,282.12
14 Austin Hurlburt $1,785.44
15 Trevor Haake $1,566.85
16 Richard Coats $960.48
17 Tucker Ravenscroft $733.84
18 Taylor Davis $709.01
19 Travis Kester $507.56
20 Gabe Taylor $339.98
Ladies Breakaway
1 Brook Jamison $5,780.73
2 Brittni McCully $5,111.57
3 Makenzie Wilson $4,993.34
4 Brooke McCully $4,321.00
5 Ginalee Sinner $4,041.30
6 Jan Brown $3,926.00
7 Kelly Haythorn $3,788.58
8 Katie Mundorf $3,357.20
9 Jessica McMaster $3,165.69
10 Amber Coleman $3,098.44
11 Danielle Wray $2,911.91
12 Dana Judge $1,673.54
13 Peyton Mentzer $1,382.86
14 Kirby Eppert $1,153.06
15 Lillian Fletcher $717.20
16 Rylee Rich $661.34
17 Katie Haythorn $576.66
18 Tracy Paulsen $576.58
19 Sydney Graff $489.55
20 BoDelle Mueller $460.64
Saddle Bronc
1 Derek Kenner $7,541.04
2 Brody McAbee $3,240.20
3 Sage Miller $2,761.17
4 Triston Eklund $1,426.22
5 Rowdy Chesser $1,279.30
6 Kyle Whitaker $795.41
7 Miles Kreeger $542.83
Tie-Down Roping
1 Riley Pruitt $5,499.12
2 Lane Day $4,853.75
3 Chip Wilson $4,157.60
4 Austin Hurlburt $3,312.47
5 Miles Garwood $2,957.16
6 Cody Reiker $2,913.09
7 Cole Wilson $2,557.02
8 Chance Oftedahl $2,543.67
9 Miles Kenzy $2,319.29
10 Tanner Stec $1,890.99
11 Patrick Martin $1,169.21
12 Grant Turek $1,157.23
13 Rhett Witt $867.80
14 Clete Scheer $794.38
15 Trey Young $654.00
16 Terry Graff $454.40
17 Nick Becker $430.25
18 Riley Wakefield $396.68
19 Casey Redman $377.27
20 Tate Oftedahl $317.94
45 & Over Tie-Down Roping
1 Jon Wooters $3,087.99
2 Rusty Kluender $2,777.68
3 Mark Lovitt $1,932.13
4 Jim Buss $1,702.52
5 Terry Graff $1,586.70
6 Jay Hollenbeck $1,577.83
7 Tyler Gracey $1,176.21
8 Arden Garwood $1,066.71
9 JL Spurgeon $996.67
10 Kaden Wooters $991.77
11 Sid Miller $528.65
12 Tuff Larson $511.44
13 Charlie Kenney $395.76
14 Joe Kimmel $271.60
15 Carl Fordyce $247.35
16 Cooper Phillips $211.46
17 Layne Wallinger $205.16
18 Dwight Doffin $113.98
19 Brad Hollenbeck $101.52
Barrel Racing
1 Dori Hollenbeck $14,269.13
2 Ginalee Sinner $7,349.27
3 Patty Finney $6,357.58
4 Gayle White $6,322.26
5 Carla Jensen $4,898.42
6 Jena Garwood $3,347.10
7 Jessica Leach $3,214.11
8 Sandy Hickey $3,154.35
9 Korrina Hughes $2,468.45
10 Presley Whitaker $2,409.53
11 Branda Marsh $2,142.52
12 Jordan Littel $1,887.78
13 Carrie Sutton $1,506.96
14 Kelli Reichmuth $932.50
15 Jamie Chaffin $844.14
16 Pam Hollenbeck $817.05
17 Katie Loughran $708.18
18 Cheryl Wallace $580.36
19 Lindsey Evers $571.75
20 Justine Jobman $524.75
Team Roping – Heading
1 Jeff Johnston $4,964.71
2 Cooper Brott $4,336.83
3 Nick Becker $3,569.44
4 Jade Schmidt $3,186.70
5 Brian Dunning $2,987.92
6 Andy Knott $2,979.17
7 Steve Sherwood $2,907.66
8 Mark Wray $2,793.86
9 Levi Tyan $2,534.57
10 Reece Weber $2,389.52
11 Corby Chytka $2,195.26
12 Clay Holz $1,346.07
13 Seth Swanson $1,082.97
14 Taylor Davis $1,039.75
15 Blaine Finney $1,039.27
16 Spencer Sinner $980.71
17 Cole Morgan $886.60
18 Nathan Poss $869.58
19 Jason Schnoor $759.43
20 Troy Hermelbracht $679.73
Team Roping – Heeling
1 Levi Tyan $5,131.57
2 Tucker White $4,477.88
3 Matt Kasner $4,086.90
4 Jett Hillman $3,903.69
5 Dawson McMaster $3,569.44
6 Todd Hollenbeck $3,181.86
7 Toby Mentzer $2,987.92
8 Clay Elkington $2,907.66
9 Gralyn Elkins $2,793.86
10 Dustin Harris $2,732.80
11 Troy Hermelbracht $2,326.26
12 Monte Snider $2,195.26
13 Riley Rhone $1,082.97
14 Dustin Chohon $1,039.27
15 Doug Finney $980.71
16 Gunner Walker $869.58
17 Dalton Pelster $838.66
18 Heath Barlow $759.43
19 Ty Talsma $601.15
20 Lane Day $578.41
Mixed Team Roping
1 Leigh Sherwood $4,249.57
2 Danielle Wray $4,214.24
3 Brooke Jamison $3,691.72
4 Amber Coleman $2,360.60
5 Shawnee Sherwood $2,121.74
6 Peyton Mentzer $2,073.33
7 Pam Hollenbeck $1,703.68
8 Ginalee Sinner $1,403.55
9 Sydney Graff $1,211.42
10 BoDelle Mueller $949.26
11 Tracy Paulsen $830.70
12 Michelle Wilson $719.61
13 Denise Nelson $531.20
14 Katie Haythorn $405.49
15 Kelly Gambill $355.48
16 Lakota Elkins $301.96
17 Hadley Teut $263.20
18 Taylor Walker $238.33
19 Makayla Wray $155.10
20 Stannis Hoffman $131.60
Bull Riding
1 Brett McAbee $6,404.37
2 Ethan Lesiak $4,594.09
3 Mason Ward $4,206.19
4 Lane Gambill $3,288.29
5 Dodge Daniels $2,580.05
6 Austin Wickett $603.00
7 Teran Sharman $249.57