It is called the Rose Bowl of college rodeo, and for good reason.
The sport's best and brightest will gather June 9-15 at the Casper Events Center in Wyoming for the 65th annual College National Finals Rodeo. More than 400 cowboys and cowgirls from more than 100 universities and colleges will be competing.
Included in that group:
Northern State - Senior Calley Worth of Gettysburg and her horse, Lily, in barrel racing. They are the first to have qualified for the finals for the Wolves since Northern State restarted its club program in 2006. NSU officials said the school had a strong tradition in rodeo dating back to the 1960s.
South Dakota State - Taryn Sippel of Pierpont in barrel racing and breakaway roping and Ross Odde of Mound City in saddle bronc.
Black Hills State - Wyatt Treeby of Hecla in tie-down roping and Hallie Ann Fulton of Miller in women's all-around.
Also, the SDSU men's and women's teams have qualified to compete for national titles, as have the Black Hills State women. So there could be others from the area competing, as well. If there is, let me know.
The College National Finals Rodeo has a history in South Dakota. Vermillion hosted the event in 1966 and Deadwood in 1969. In that 1969 event, Lonnie Hall of Black Hills State won the bull riding national title.
There have been several South Dakota national champions in rodeo. The earliest one I found was South Dakota State's Carlee Obervy, who won the barrel racing title in 1964.
Some other things I know:
Rodeo II: Speaking of rodeo, the South Dakota High School Rodeo Association Finals Rodeo will be June 19-23 in Belle Fourche. There were regionals held last weekend and this weekend in Dupree and Watertown.
SDSU proud: The South Dakota State baseball team's stay in the Jacks' first Division I national tourney was short, but memorable.
The Jacks lost 3-2 to Oregon in the first round in the Eugene Regional on a two-run double in the eighth inning. The Jacks were eliminated Saturday when San Francisco nipped them 4-3 in 13 innings in a four-hour, 24-minute marathon.
Against Oregon, Yankton graduate and SDSU senior starting pitcher Layne Somsen was brilliant. The former Aberdeen resident allowed just one hit in seven-plus innings, striking out six and walking three. Like I said earlier, I remember Layne from years ago when he was about 4 years old carrying a plastic bat and always to looking to play a make-believe game or catch. He was the Summit League pitcher of the year and a member of the league's nine-member All-Academic team - a great young man from a great family.
Dropped calls: My voice mail failed this weekend and accidently deleted my voice mails. So if you called me this weekend expecting a call back, please call again. Or better yet, email me at jpapendick@aberdeennews.com. Sorry for the inconvenience.
John Papendick is the managing news-sports editor for the American News: jpapendick@aberdeennews.com.
Twitter: @jpapendick