Clarendon College freshman Tagg Bond is one of three Bulldogs to win a national championship last week at the College National Finals Rodeo. He was joined by bareback rider Carson Hildre and steer wrestler Andrew Morian, and the Clarendon’s men won the team title for the third time in six years.
(PHOTO BY JACKIE JENSEN)

 

CLARENDON, Texas – Championships happen when individuals excel and a team thrives.

Such is the case for the Clarendon College men’s rodeo team, which not only won its third title in six years but also had three nation champions at the conclusion of the College National Finals Rodeo in Casper, Wyoming.

“It was pretty awesome,” said Tagg Bond, a freshman saddle bronc rider from Edna, Kansas. “I won all four rounds, which was pretty sweet, and then I got to win national championships with my buddies. It was a pretty alright week.”

Bond dominated the week of bronc riding. His four-ride aggregate score of 340 was 17.5 points better than the runner-up. He also shared his place on the mountaintop with two teammates, Andrew Morian, who won the steer wrestling title, and Carson Hildre, who was part of a three-way tie for the bareback riding championship.

“The college finals taught me you’ve got to draw good, and I did that,” Bond said. “I also learned that I can actually win something.”

His winning streak started days before, when he won the ProRodeo in Woodward, Oklahoma. It served as the catalyst for his adventure to Wyoming.

“I did that two days before I had to go to the college finals,” he said. “I hope I can keep drawing good and win some money this summer.”

That’s the plan for any rodeo cowboy, and Hildre is taking it to heart. He is also competing in his inaugural year in ProRodeo and is among the top 25 in the bareback riding world standings.

“It’s a pretty cool thing to be able to be in my first CNFR as a freshman and getting the win,” said Hildre of Velva, North Dakota. “I’m leading the rookie standings, and I get to be with some pretty good buds of mine.

“I just knew I had to be consistent throughout the whole week. I started my first two rides off with (scores in the) high 70s. I was 85 on my third-round horse and ended up winning the round, and then I was 83.25 on my fourth one. I think the big thing is you had to make work with what you had drawn each day.”

Sometimes it’s about managing situations, then taking advantage on the occasions that circumstances are in one’s favor. Morian did that almost as well as anyone. He placed in all four rounds and won Round 3. His four-run cumulative time of 17.1 was almost a second ahead of the field.

“It was a great experience,” said Morian, a sophomore from Gardnerville, Nevada. “I was competing against guys that are placing in the world standings there, but I knew if I just did my job and did what I needed to do, I could get it done.

“I finally felt what’s happened in the practice pen all year long was put into play at the rodeo. I tried not to let the big moment get the better of me.”

That’s tough, because Casper is the goal of ever intercollegiate rodeo athlete. Cowboys and cowgirls compete in 10 regional events throughout the school year, and only the top three individuals – and top two teams – from each region advance to the CNFR.

Clarendon dominated the men’s race in the newly created Caprock Region. Hildre won bareback riding, and Morian outlasted teammate Riley Barber in bulldogging. Bond finished his inaugural year in intercollegiate rodeo as the No. 2 bronc rider in the region, but the ultimate prize is his.

In addition to this being Clarendon’s third men’s national title – the Bulldogs also won team titles in 2021 and 2023 – Bond, Hildre and Morian become the sixth, seventh and eighth cowboys from the Texas Panhandle college to win individual championships. They join saddle bronc riders Wyatt Casper (2016) and Riggin Smith (2019); all-around cowboy/bareback rider Cole Franks (2021); bareback rider Weston Timberman (2023-24); and all-around cowboy/bull rider Wacey Schalla (2024).

“Weston Patterson pushed me to go there,” Bond said of a fellow Kansan who was part of the 2021 national-title team. “He told me I could be a good bronc rider and go other places, but he said Bret Franks was just going to help me out a lot. He has for sure.”

In some capacity, Franks has been coaching most of his adult life. He has been head coach at Clarendon since 2015. He won his first men’s team intercollegiate championship when he was the coach at his alma mater, Oklahoma Panhandle State University. He guided the 1997 and ’98 teams to titles.

“The individual championship was pretty cool, but the team title is pretty special to me,” Hildre said. “Bret told me before we went there that this was one of the best teams he’s ever had, and I knew that if all of our team could go in there and do what we had to do, we’d get it done.

“We ended up coming out as national champs, and that’s pretty cool.”

Yes, it is. Morian is also the college’s first time-event titlist, and it shows the talent the Bulldogs have in multiple disciplines. The others either rode bucking horses or bulls, and four of the five previous college champs have gone on to qualify for the National Finals Rodeo.

“We had an outstanding team,” Morian said. “Bret does a real good job with the roughies (the cowboys who ride roughstock), and Wyatt Smith has been an outstanding bulldogging coach himself. We worked really well as a team this year to win the region, and then coming into the college finals, we knew we had a pretty dang good team.”

Mentorship goes a long way. Franks and Smith have credentials behind them. Franks is a three-time NFR qualifier in saddle bronc riding, while Smith wrestled steers at the 2014 NFR.

“I don’t think there’s any other college that practices more than we do,” Morian said. “It’s just really the winning mindset and the work ethic put together. I think it’s just unbeatable.”