Rodeo ropes Polson in

POLSON — Cally Otoupalik was the local star of this past weekend’s Mission Mountain Rodeo, held Friday and Saturday evening at the Polson Fairgrounds.

The Arlee native won the junior breakaway roping section with a time of 3.2 seconds, the only Lake County resident to win an event at the hometown rodeo, which was a stop on the Northern Rodeo Association’s state-wide tour.

The annual rodeo drew a crowd of 3,500 over the two days of the event, and spectators enjoyed terrific weather in addition to a wide variety of rodeo competitions, including some of the state’s premier cowboys and cowgirls.

“We were very pleased with the crowd. The grandstands were full,” said Una Rose Graham, secretary for Polson Fairgrounds, Inc. “We had wonderful weather. It was a wonderful weekend for rodeo here at Polson.”

Kristi Horner of Ronan placed third in the ladies’ barrel racing, and Cody Sheridan of Arlee, along with partner Reed Jenkins of Florence placed third in the team roping competition.

In addition to strong performances from local participants, Graham emphasized the importance of local sponsors to the success of the rodeo.

“The funding to produce the rodeo comes from many, many local sponsors that contribute to this,” Graham said. “Rodeos are real expensive to produce, and local businesses help us put it on for the community. It’s a real community effort.”

Several NRA stars had strong showings in Polson as well. John Salois (East Glacier, Mont.) won the bareback riding section. Salois is the reigning NRA champion and extended his lead in the 2013 standings with the first-place finish.

Conrad’s Taylour Russell extended her lead in the barrel racing standings with her time of 17.57 seconds.

2012 junior barrel racing champion Shai McDonald (Gardiner, Mont.) took the lead in the 2013 standings with her win in that event.