ProRodeo Sports News - Dec. 21, 2018

SADDLE BRONC

WORLD CHAMPION

Wade Sundell won his first world title at his eighth trip to the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo. The Iowa cowboy came into the Wrangler NFR ranked eighth in the 2018 PRCA | RAM World Standings and climbed to the top by winning $177,327 at the Thomas & Mack Center. PRCA ProRodeo photo by James Phifer

PRCA ProRodeo photo by Phil Doyle

bared down and had fun.” Sundell and Medicine Woman are familiar with each other. Sundell had another 92-point ride on her in the final round of the 2014 Dodge City (Kan.) Roundup Rodeo. She was what he had hoped for at theThomas &Mack Center in Las Vegas. “Yeah, it was everything I figured it would be,” he said. “She wanted to stall out, so I kept gassing on her.” He went on to split the win in Round 7 with Chase Brooks when both cowboys made 90-point rides. Sundell did it aboard Lancaster & Jones Pro Rodeo’s Total Equines Angel Fire. The 90 points tied the round record set by Billy Etbauer in 2009. Sundell had never ridden Angel Fire, but he had a good idea of what the bronc might do. “I’d seen her before and knew she would have some moves, and there were a few more than I thought,” he said following his Round 7 win. “She lived up to every bit of it.” At that point, Sundell had climbed from eighth to fifth in the world standings at $194,329 with three rounds left to go.

“Just being here is the coolest thing you ever get to do,” he said. “Every day is like the first time. It doesn’t matter where you go or what you do, I’m just glad to be here.” Scoring 85.5 points in Round 8 and then placing second and fourth in the last two rounds helped him to second in the average and pushed the Boxholm, Iowa, cowboy to the top of the 2018 PRCA | RAMWorld Standings with $280,636 – winning by a margin of $18,202. “Just go day by day and do what you’ve been doing your whole life,” Sundell said. “Keep your chin down and have fun riding bucking horses.” The 2018 season was a turbulent one for Sundell as his home burned down during the summer run. “Life will do that to you, but keep your chin up – there’s no sense in being a Sally,” he said. Sundell plans on using his 2018 earnings to help rebuild his home, and he has no plans of slowing down in 2019. “I’m going to go the same way I have my whole life and shoot for first,” Sundell said.

ProRodeo Sports News 12/21/2018

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