Northwestern Oklahoma State University steer wrestler Sam Daly won Saturday night’s championship round at Pratt, Kansas, from where he transferred to be a Ranger. He and another former Pratt cowboy, team roping heeler Payton Blank, found victories at their old stomping grounds.
(PHOTO BY DALE HIRSCHMAN)
ALVA, Okla. – It had been a dozen years since Pratt (Kansas) Community College last hosted a Central Plains Region rodeo, and a couple of Rangers found themselves at home this past weekend.
Team roping heeler Payton Blank and steer wrestler Sam Daly – both of whom transferred to Northwestern Oklahoma State University from Pratt in the fall of 2025 – won their respective events.
“That was really cool,” said Blank, a senior from Murdock, Kansas, who roped with Cutter Weil of Pittsburg (Kansas) State University.
Daly was in a similar boat.
“It felt good to go back there and do it in front of a bunch of people I had met and made connections with before,” said Daly, a senior from Tryon, Nebraska. “I thought they did a good job putting the rodeo on, and it felt like I was actually going out there and competing at a real rodeo and not just another college rodeo.”
Daly and Blank were roommates at Pratt, and that has continued during their tenure at Alva. Leading the way for the Rangers just made a good weekend even better.
“Payton is my best friend, and I know we were both just as excited for each other as we were for winning out own events,” Daly said. “It’s good to have that support and be able to compete alongside your friends and be able to cheer them on when they do good, too.
“If I can just keep doing good, making my runs and doing my job every week, I think I’ll be alright. I’ve just got to stay consistent.”
Riding his sorrel gelding, Rogue, Daly stopped the clock in 5.1 seconds to finish as the runner-up in the long round. He then posted a 4.1 to win the short round and the aggregate title.
“That horse is super easy,” said Daly, who moved into second place in the region standings. “You jut back him (in the timed-event box) and see the start you want to see, then ride hard. He’ll put you right there in the spot. It makes it a lot of fun to be able to have one that’s good enough to know that I can. I don’t have to worry about my horse.”
Blank and Weil placed second in both rounds – they were 5.9 seconds in the opener and 6.3 in the final round – to win the aggregate championship. The 155 points Blank earned will move him high into the Central Plains heeling standings.
“We drew two really, really good steers, and (Weil) handle steers very well and got out of the barrier and made it easy for me to do my job,” he said. “I’ve been around this my whole life. My dad rodeoed and all my cousins and uncles rodeoed, too, so I just grew up around it. We’ve got cows and stuff at our place.”
While Daly and Blank were the driving force for Northwestern, there were several others who found success just 70 miles north of the campus. Tie-down roper Carter Anderson of Merriman, Nebraska, was solid to finish third, while bulldogger Nathan Duvall of Henryetta, Oklahoma, and team ropers Cooper Mott of Kansas, Oklahoma, and Colter Snook of Ford, Kansas, made the championship round.
For the women’s team, two cowgirls earned points in multiple events: Laynee Ohm of Hyannis, Nebraska, and Minda Woodward of Dupree, South Dakota, placed in the first round of breakaway roping; Ohm also won the final round of goat-tying with a 7.7-second run and finished fourth in the aggregate, while Woodward was fifth on the final day of barrel racing and fifth overall.
Ohm, Woodward and Y’Leigh Yarbrough of Cheyenne, Oklahoma, were part of a five-way tie for fifth place in the opening round of breakaway roping. Yarbrough also placed sixth in the short round. Payton Dingman of Pryor, Oklahoma, won the first round with a 2.0-second run, and her two-run cumulative time of 5.9 seconds earned her a split of sixth place in the average with Yarbrough.
The Rangers will next travel to the Oklahoma State University rodeo in Stillwater this coming weekend, then will host the region for the rodeo from Oct. 29-31 at Salt Fork Arena.
“I came to Alva because it’s close to home and is a good community,” Blank said. “There are a lot of team ropers, and we have great practice facilities.
“I really like the area.”