BADLANDS CIRCUIT: BREAKAWAY
Breakaway Roping Christensen Captures the Average Title and a spot in the 2023 NFR Open
By Joe Kusek O ccupations, Syerra Christensen has a few. Christensen helps on the family homestead, a cow-calf operation along with some farm irrigated land along the Missouri River in Kennebec, South Dakota. When her parents, Jerry and Melodi, head to Arizona for the winter months, Christensen is primarily in charge. She also works as a crop adjuster and helps at a hunting lodge in the fall when individuals from all over the United States flock to the small community in the south-central part of the state for South Dakota’s world-class pheasant hunting. And, oh, Christensen competes in breakaway roping. “I make time,” said Christensen. She made time, fast time, at the RAM Badlands Circuit Finals, Oct. 14-16, in Minot, North Dakota. Christensen caught three calves in 7.0 seconds to win the Badlands Circuit Finals title.
She finished 136th in the 2022 WPRA breakaway standings with $6,120 won. “I just mainly stayed around the circuit,” said Christensen, known more affectionately as “CY” by her family. “My great-grandmother had trouble pronouncing Syerra, so my father said to call her “CY,” Christensen explained of the story. She entered her second Badlands Circuit Finals 10th in the standings. “My one goal was to try and make the NFR Open,” said Christensen Syerra Christensen added a new title to her resume winning the average title in the breakaway roping at the Badlands Circuit Finals in Minot, N.D. She caught three calves in 7.0 seconds to take the title. Photo by Alaina Stangle
“It’s a pretty neat deal,” she said of her first circuit title. She earned her WPRA card in 2019. “It’s a good feeling. I was happy. It is dang sure something to be proud of.” With Swiss watch consistency, Christensen threw loops of 2.3, 2.3 and 2.4 seconds at the State Fair Center. “I drew good, my horse worked and it all worked out,” she said. “You had to be aggressive and push the barrier. It was good to get that first calf roped and same with the second. The third round, I drew a calf that went to the left the first two rounds. I wasn’t going to safety up. I roped what I could draw. He went straight in the round.” Christensen placed second, first and third in the three rounds to earn $7,787 more than double her 2022 season earnings. Syerra Christensen is a busy lady but finds time to breakaway rope in the WPRA. After winning the average title in the Badlands Circuit and punching her ticket to the NFR Open in Colorado Springs, Colorado in July, she will have to carve time out of her schedule to make that trip. A good showing in Colorado could be very profitable for the South Dakota cowgirl. Photo by Alaina Stangle
Samantha Fulton qualified for her first Wrangler National Finals Breakaway Roping and after winning the year-end title in the Badlands Circuit she has now earned her first qualification to the NFR Open. Fulton will be looking to follow in Martha Angelone’s footsteps who won the inaugural breakaway NFR Open title in 2022 and then went on to win the 2022 WPRA World Title. Photo by Alaina Stangle
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DECCEMBER 2022
WOMEN’S PRO RODEO NEWS 15
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