ROCK SPRINGS – The National High School Finals Rodeo (NHSFR) continues to dwindle down to the wire with the Wyoming team dominating the team roping event for the second go-round. There are four separate groups for Team Wyoming in the top ten claiming, first, third, sixth, and 10th place.
In total team points, the Wyoming Girls are in second place while Team Wyoming is 3rd overall.
For the local Sweetwater County kids, Jacob Cook is still awaiting his run for the second go-round. Morgan Watts is in 23rd place this go-round with a time of 8.1 in goat tying. This paired with her 10th place finish in the first go sets her up as a top contender in her event. For Connor Weese, he is currently in 41st place in the second go of steer wrestling but his 4.51 time in the first go is still second-best overall.
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Below you can find all the Wyoming Contestants in the top 10 for their events as well as the top 10 for all events below that.
Wyoming Contestants in the Top 10 for the Second Go-Round
FORT COLLINS, CO – NOVEMBER 15: Running back Avery Morrow (25) of the Colorado State Rams sheds a tackle attempt by defensive back Wrook Brown (2) of the Wyoming Cowboys during the first half at Canvas Stadium in Fort Collins, Colorado on Friday, November 15, 2024. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)
COLORADO STATE RAMS V WYOMING COWBOYS, FBS
AAron Ontiveroz
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FORT COLLINS, CO – NOVEMBER 15: Running back Avery Morrow (25) of the Colorado State Rams runs against the Wyoming Cowboys during the first half at Canvas Stadium in Fort Collins, Colorado on Friday, November 15, 2024. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)
COLORADO STATE RAMS V WYOMING COWBOYS, FBS
AAron Ontiveroz
FORT COLLINS, CO – NOVEMBER 15: Linebacker Connor Shay (33) of the Wyoming Cowboys tackles tight end Peter Montini (44) of the Colorado State Rams during the first half at Canvas Stadium in Fort Collins, Colorado on Friday, November 15, 2024. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)
COLORADO STATE RAMS V WYOMING COWBOYS, FBS
AAron Ontiveroz
FORT COLLINS, CO – NOVEMBER 15: Running back Avery Morrow (25) of the Colorado State Rams collides with defensive back Wrook Brown (2) of the Wyoming Cowboys during the first half at Canvas Stadium in Fort Collins, Colorado on Friday, November 15, 2024. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)
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COLORADO STATE RAMS V WYOMING COWBOYS, FBS
AAron Ontiveroz
FORT COLLINS, CO – NOVEMBER 15: Head coach Jay Norvell of the Colorado State Rams jumps into the arms of quarterback Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi (16) after the quarterback caught a receiving touchdown against the Wyoming Cowboys during the first half at Canvas Stadium in Fort Collins, Colorado on Friday, November 15, 2024. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)
COLORADO STATE RAMS V WYOMING COWBOYS, FBS
AAron Ontiveroz
FORT COLLINS, CO – NOVEMBER 15: Linebacker Connor Shay (33) of the Wyoming Cowboys tackles running back Justin Marshall (29) of the Colorado State Rams during the first half at Canvas Stadium in Fort Collins, Colorado on Friday, November 15, 2024. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)
COLORADO STATE RAMS V WYOMING COWBOYS, FBS
AAron Ontiveroz
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FORT COLLINS, CO – NOVEMBER 15: Wide receiver Dane Olson (81) of the Colorado State Rams takes the field bearing a flag before the first half against the Wyoming Cowboys at Canvas Stadium in Fort Collins, Colorado on Friday, November 15, 2024. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)
COLORADO STATE RAMS V WYOMING COWBOYS, FBS
AAron Ontiveroz
FORT COLLINS, CO – NOVEMBER 15: Defensive back Jace Bellah (12) of the Colorado State Rams hits quarterback Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi (16) of the Colorado State Rams during the second half at Canvas Stadium in Fort Collins, Colorado on Friday, November 15, 2024. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)
COLORADO STATE RAMS V WYOMING COWBOYS, FBS
AAron Ontiveroz
FORT COLLINS, CO – NOVEMBER 15: Defensive back Dom Jones (7) of the Colorado State Rams tackles tight end Nick Miles (86) of the Wyoming Cowboys during the second half at Canvas Stadium in Fort Collins, Colorado on Friday, November 15, 2024. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)
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COLORADO STATE RAMS V WYOMING COWBOYS, FBS
AAron Ontiveroz
FORT COLLINS, CO – NOVEMBER 15: The Colorado State Rams celebrate with the Bronze Boot after the fourth quarter of CSU’s 24-10 Border War win over the Wyoming Cowboys at Canvas Stadium in Fort Collins, Colorado on Friday, November 15, 2024. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)
COLORADO STATE RAMS V WYOMING COWBOYS, FBS
AAron Ontiveroz
FORT COLLINS, CO – NOVEMBER 15: Linebacker Chase Wilson (30) of the Colorado State Rams celebrates with the Bronze Boot after the fourth quarter of CSU’s 24-10 Border War win over the Wyoming Cowboys at Canvas Stadium in Fort Collins, Colorado on Friday, November 15, 2024. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)
LARAMIE, Wyo. — The Wyoming Cowboys return to the friendly confines of the Arena-Auditorium on Saturday evening when they host Utah Tech at 7 p.m. It is just the second-ever meeting between the two schools, the first taking place in 2018.
Wyoming is 2–1 on the season after falling on the road at Texas Tech 96–49 on Wednesday.
The Pokes are shooting 47.7% from the field on the season, while opponents have shot 46.5%.
UW has also established itself as one of the better rebounding squads in the Mountain West Conference, as the 40 boards per game are the fourth-best average in the league.
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The Trailblazers head into the game with a 1–2 record. Utah Tech defeated Bethesda 90–59 on Wednesday after falling to Oregon State and New Mexico State to start the season.
The Trailblazers have a team field goal percentage of 36.9% while their opponents shoot 45.4%.
UW Cowboy Obi Agbim leads the team in scoring with 21.3 points per game. He also contributes 3.7 assists per game. Jordan Nesbitt and Kobe Newton join Agbin in double-digit scoring, with each averaging 10 points per game. Nesbitt also leads the team’s rebounding efforts with 9 per game.
Utah Tech is led in scoring by Noa Gonsalves’s 14.3 points per game. He also leads the team with seven 3-pointers. Beon Riley adds 12.7 points per game and leads the team with 8.7 rebounds per contest.
When Senate President Ogden Driskill, R-Devils Tower, and state Rep. John Bear, R-Gillette, met on stage at the Wyoming Business Alliance’s Governor Business Forum in Laramie on Thursday, it was a collision of outgoing and incoming visions about what Wyoming’s state government should look like.
Driskill is at the end of his term as Senate president while Bear will likely be the next chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, the premier committee for drafting the state’s biennial and supplemental budgets.
Driskill will still serve in the Legislature until at least 2026, but it will be up to the next Senate president to determine his committee assignments.
Bear and Driskill disagreed on many topics Thursday, but agreed they share a desire to do what they believe is right for Wyoming.
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“We can butt heads as long as they’re not bloody, and this is how you get to better policy,” Driskill said. “At some point in time you find yourself to the middle.”
Rep. Trey Sherwood, D-Laramie, was also part of the panel discussion. She and Driskill said they want to see policy driven by Wyoming problems rather than national headlines, an approach many have accused members of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus of taking. Bear is the former chairman of the Freedom Caucus.
The Role Of Government
Bear believes Wyoming government can do better than it is and wants to help advance President-elect Donald Trump’s agenda in the state.
He said he believes Trump’s administration will have a significant positive impact on Wyoming’s coal industry, while Driskill was a little more pessimistic.
“I think the election was really clear that there’s a rejection of this climate cultism that says we can’t have carbon at all,” Bear said.
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More specifically, he believes Wyoming voters passed a clear mandate in support of the Freedom Caucus agenda judging by the results of this year’s election. The Freedom Caucus will take over a majority of seats in the Wyoming House this session.
Sherwood takes a slightly different approach, seeing the state’s budget as a reflection of the Legislature’s shared values.
Next Year’s Budget
Gov. Mark Gordon also unveiled his $692 million supplemental budget Thursday during the forum, which he promoted as being both fiscally conservative and serving the public’s needs. It will be up to the Legislature to decide how much of this budget it wants to approve.
The Legislature will oversee a relatively strong fiscal outlook entering the 2025 session thanks to a Consensus Revenue Estimating Group (CREG) report released in October showing an expected $122 million overall revenue surplus compared to what was forecasted for the state in January.
Bear wants government spending limited to constitutionally mandated items and what the Legislature feels is most needed to help residents.
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Driskill mentioned how the Legislature made $400 million in cuts when he was on the Senate Appropriations Committee. He believes a commonly promoted narrative that the “sky is falling” in Wyoming is false and that the state is in a relatively strong financial position.
Comparing the Wyoming government to the debt and spending of the federal government, he said, is not one in the same.
“Folks, the sky is not falling,” he said. “Wyoming has more money per capita in savings than any other state in the nation.”
Driskill said the correct way to use surplus money is not to send it back to taxpayers, but put it into savings to help the state balance its needs during leaner years. This has generally been the approach of the Legislature over the last few decades.
Over the past two years, the Legislature has put nearly $3 billion into savings partially thanks to a large uptick in investment interest income. It’s Driskill’s goal for 50% to 60% of the general fund spending to funded by investment income.
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Driskill said he isn’t worried about being able to support the state’s short-term needs and that supporting the needs of Wyoming’s children and grandchildren is who a large savings account will benefit.
“That’s what I look at when I put money into savings,” Driskill said. “It’s not for me, it’s for the future generations and I want to have something left with that wealth that Wyoming has.”
He also mentioned how the Legislature performed some fiscal maneuvering in order to put federal COVID-19 funds into savings rather than using it for its intended immediate use.
From left, state Reps. Trey Sherwood, John Bear and Senate President Ogden Driskill debate tax relief and their visions for Wyoming’s future Thursday in Laramie at the Wyoming Business Alliance’s Governor Business Forum. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily)
The Role Of Government
Driskill also argued that business corporations usually don’t make cuts during profitable years, but rather make investments in their business, and said the Legislature should take the same approach.
“Let’s not cut ourselves in a prosperous time,” Driskill said, receiving applause from the audience.
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Although Driskill said that businesses are simply looking for a stable and predictable government when they move to a state, Bear countered that putting more money into the economy is not a destabilizing measure.
Bear said unlike a business, the government takes money out of the economy and produces no physical products.
“The more money we take out of the economy is less money that you all can invest in things like housing for your workforce,” he said.
Driskill mentioned how a TerraPower nuclear reactor in Kemmerer has been opposed by some conservatives in Wyoming because billionaire Bill Gates is behind it.
Driskill doesn’t share those concerns and said the Legislature shouldn’t be turning away any business as long as there’s a fair playing field and it doesn’t negatively affect the state.
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“I don’t care who comes, I want investment in Wyoming, I want jobs in Wyoming,” Driskill said. “If it means it’s Bill Gates, I welcome him. If it’s Warren Buffett, Rocky Mountain Power — if they want to play fair and play good, I welcome them.”
Driskill believes the government can invest in economic growth by offering grants to private industries.
“I’m one of the ones who does believe government has a role,” he said.
Property Taxes
Bear believes the voters are clearly demanding property tax relief, a solution he said could be engineered by making budget cuts. He said the taxpayers have already given the state a generous amount of money over the last few years due to the rising property taxes.
“Now, it’s time to give a little bit of relief in that area,” he said.
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Although Driskill agrees rising property taxes is a significant issue for Wyoming, he doesn’t believe tax cuts should be paid for by taking money out of the general fund, where a significant portion of the account is funded by mineral revenues.
This is the same reason why Gordon vetoed a bill that would have provided tax relief last year because of its dependence on the general fund, which the governor saw as using one sector of the economy to unfairly subsidize another. He defended that veto again during a press conference Thursday.
Driskill also doesn’t want ultra-wealthy residents who only live in Wyoming a small portion of the year to receive these same cuts.
“I think he needs to continue to pay a fairly high rate on his $30 million house,” he said of this demographic, also drawing a short applause. “I want relief to go where it needs to go.”
Bear wants tax cuts levied across the board not just for residential taxes, but also for other sectors like agriculture and minerals that would be paid for by making governmental cuts in other areas. He mentioned how Wyoming still has the most state employees per capita in the nation.
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Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
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