IFYR – Outhier, Dube Repeat as All-Around Champions
Written by Teri Lee published in the September 1996 issue of Barrel Horse News
Mike Outhier, from Weatherford, Oklahoma, recorded a “4-peat” all-around championship win at the fourth annual International Finals Youth Rodeo, held July 8-13 (1996), at the Heart of Oklahoma Expo Center in Shawnee, Oklahoma.
Over 700 high school contestants descended on Shawnee to compete in the world’s richest youth rodeo. The IFYR4 offered more than $145,000 in prize money to the contestants, something unusual for a high school event.
Jackie Dube claimed her second consecutive IFYR all-around championship.The purse for the IFYR, which is sanctioned by the International Professional Rodeo Association, consists of the contestants’ $100 entry fees and $50,000 added money for the rodeo’s 10 events.
When Outhier was a freshman in high school, his father, Milburn, and IPRA bareback riding world champion, encouraged him to enter the first IFYR, held in 1993, for the experience of competing for the large cash awards, which is not an option at most high school rodeos.
The talented athlete left the event with the all-around title. Since then, he has returned to the IFYR three times and has taken home the sought-after all-around championship each year.
Since he had broken his wrist at an IPRA rodeo prior to IFYR4, Outhier chose to enter only five events, rather than working his usual six events. He did not enter the bull riding event. That, of course, meant that he would not have a shot at winning all three rough-stock events as he had in 1995 at IFYR3.
He did claim one IFYR4 event championship, the saddle bronc riding, after tying for first in the first go, splitting fourth and fifth place in the second go and winning the short go.
Outlier earned a total of $2,221.93 at IFYR4, which was considerably less than the &7,472 that he pocketed form IFYR3.
Outlier, who graduated from high school this year, has received a lot of attention from the media since he won the 1995 International Professional Rodeo Association (IPRA) All-Around World Championship and International Finals Rodeo 26 All-Around Championship. At age 18, he became the youngest cowboy ever to win the association’s most coveted title.
Jackie Dube, Giddings, Texas, entered her second IFYR and successfully defended her IFYR3 all-around championship title.
Although the high school sophomore failed to claim a consecutive pole bending championship, she did win the breakaway roping event with a three-round time of 10.6 seconds. Dude also placed second in the barrel racing average and tied for fifth and sixth place in the goat tying average. She brought home total earnings of $5,158.73.
Shelly Selmon won the barrel racing event’s first go-round. Each IFYR4 contestant competed in the two long go-rounds with the top 15 contestants advancing to a final short go-round. In addition to working for prize money checks, which were awarded following each go-round, many contestants competed in multiple events with the cowboy and cowgirl who won the most money in more than one event being named the all-round champions.
The IFYR is open to any high school student who is enrolled in grades 9-12 in he current high school academic year and is academically eligible, according to his state’s secondary schools athletic requirements.
A new addition to the IFYR in 1996 was team competition. Any IPRA stock contractor, IPRA rodeo committee or high school rodeo association could request eligibility for a team by writing to IFYR4.
In addition to purse monies, team trophies were awarded to the champion and reserve champion teams. A banner and individual trophies were also awarded to the champion team.
The 11 teams entered could have no more than three contestants (teams in team roping) with a minimum of one in seven of the 10 events offered – bareback bronc riding, calf roping, steer wrestling, team roping, barrel racing, pole bending, breakaway roping and goat tying.
The No. 1 team was sponsored by the Vicki Long Rodeo Co., Osage City, Kansas. Barrel racing and pole bending team entries included Leah Tenpenny, Valley Falls, Kansas; Amy Burton, Matfield Green, Kansas; and Kyla Inman, Bartlesville, Oklahoma. Breakaway roping entries were Jackie Jo Chaney, Copan, Oklahoma; Candy Kraft, Colony, Kansas; and Kim Smith, Huntsville, Missouri. And, the goat tying was entered by team members Chaney, Kraft and Trisha Pichard, Carthage, Missouri.
Other members of the winning team included team ropers – Adam Rose, Willard, Missouri, and Travis McGile, Ava, Missouri; Jeff Miller, Blue Mound, Kansas, and Jacob Flores, Eldorado, Kansas, and Jeff Roberts, Eldorado, Kansas, and Clint Eastwood, Parker Kansas. The team’s calf roping entries included Rose, Miller and Matt Yocham, Copan, Oklahoma. Steer wrestling entries were Eastwood, Miller and Josh Welch, Earlsboro, Oklahoma.
Also, included as members of the team were Josh Welch, Earlsboro, Oklahoma, a bareback riding entry; Roberts, Welch, and Loren Barber, Kilgore, Texas, saddle bronc riding entries and Chad Castillo, Millvano, Kansas, Roberts and Welch, who each entered the bull riding.
Members of the second place team were sponsored by the Oklahoma Youth Rodeo Association. The third place team was sponsored by the Texas Region 4 Renegades and the fourth place team was sponsored by Oklahoma National Saddlery.
IFYR Champions
Going into the short go-round, anything was possible with very little separating the top cowboys and cowgirls in each event from those in the other 14 positions. The talented competitors kept the finals exciting with no championship being determined until each ride and run was complete.
Aside from Dube, another Texas cowgirl who brought a championship title back to her home state, was Talina Bird, from Post, who placed second in the second go-round of the pole bending event with a time of 21.166, and won the championship with 63.171 on three runs.
Leann Kay, Joaquin, Texas, claimed the barrel racing championship after placing fifth in the first go-round with a 16.462, winning the second go-round with a 16.817 and the short go with a 16.506.
An Oklahoma cowgirl, Jackie Jo Chaney, from Copan, won the goat tying championship with a three-head average time of 23.9.
Winners in the boys’ events, other than Outhier, included Lynn Dale Toon, Smithville, Oklahoma, who claimed the bareback bronc riding championship, and Hunstville, Texas, cowboy, Dustin Lance Webb, who won the bull riding average title with 220 points.
Two brothers, Brant and Rayn Spurgin, Eminence, Missouri, posted the fastest team roping total time of 29.4 seconds. And, a New Mexico cowboy, Kurt Kiehne, from Limiter, took top honors in the calf roping event, winning the average with a time of 39.1.
The steer wrestling championship was won by Chad Edgmon, of Fallon, Nevada, with an average time of 16.1 seconds.
compiled by Kailey Sullins
