RODEO GOLD Utah cowboy kicks off his college freshman year with bull riding win at Elk City Rodeo
ELK CITY, OKLA. – (August 31, 2025) Wyatt Bowman is ten days into his freshman year of college, 900 miles from home. But that didn’t stop him from winning the bull riding at the 2025 Elk City (Okla.) Rodeo of Champions.
The Plain City, Utah bull rider scored 87.5 points on Gangster Walk, a bull owned by the Beutler Rodeo Co. string, to best the field and win the title. Bowman had researched the bull, noting that Arapaho, Oklahoma bull rider Wacey Schalla, who is ranked second in the current PRCA world standings, had scored 90 points on the bull twice.
“I was pretty excited for him,” Bowman said. “I’ve been riding pretty good away from my hand, so I just knew if I stayed with the fundamentals, it would be a good ride.”
At nineteen years old, he is a freshman at Frank Phillips College in Borger, Texas, competing collegiately on a full-ride scholarship. He’s been a PRCA member since last fall, but a knee injury kept him out of competition till June of this year.
Bowman didn’t get the bull riding bug till his freshman year of high school. One of his dad’s friends had rodeoed in college, so the friend helped him get going. He competed in the Idaho High School Rodeo Association for four years but didn’t come into his own till about a year ago.
“After two years, I was decent enough for high school rodeo (competition), but in the last year, I figured it out to where I feel comfortable coming to a pro rodeo,” he said.
In college, he’ll work towards a welding certificate, with the goal of qualifying for the College National Finals Rodeo, held each June in Casper, Wyo. The top four competitors in each event, in each collegiate region, qualify for the College National Finals. After his schooling, Bowman would like to rodeo full time.
Other champions at the 87th annual rodeo include bareback rider Dean Thompson, Altamont, Utah (87 points); steer wrestler Tyler Ravenscroft, Nenzel, Neb. (4.8 seconds); team ropers Curry Kirchner, Ames, Okla. and Tanner Braden, Dewey, Okla. (5.0 seconds); saddle bronc rider Jake Finlay, Goondiwindi, Queensland, Australia (84.5 points); tie-down roper Jacob Walters, Colorado City, Texas (8.6 seconds); and barrel racer Alyssa Urbanek-Wade (15.80 seconds.)
Next year’s rodeo will be September 4-6, 2026.
More information can be found at www.elkcityrodeo.com.
