Alberta cowgirl top earner at Canadian Finals Rodeo

The Whiteside family lore continues to grow at the Canadian Finals Rodeo.

Longview’s Bradi Whiteside earned the All-Around Cowgirl title at the 2024 Canadian Finals Rodeo, held Oct. 2-5 in Edmonton, as the top combined earner in the breakaway roping and barrel racing competitions.

Whiteside accrued combined earnings of $66,215.15 in the barrel racing ($39,570.53) and breakaway roping ($26,644.62) to finish as the top performer competing in both events inclusive of the season totals and CFR finishes.

In Edmonton, she racked up over $24,000 in earnings with consistent performances through five rounds highlighted by first-place finishes in one round of each event along with a trio of top-four finishes in the racing and roping.

Her 2.2-second time topped the roping field in round two and the following day she turned the clover leaf pattern in a round three-best 13.81 seconds in the barrel racing.

She’s the second member of her family to win the title in the past three years. Older sister Kylie was the inaugural winner of the All-Around title in 2022.

Kylie earned a second-place finish in one round of the roping and ended the season as the seventh-place finisher in the event.

The sisters are following in the footsteps of their father Travis, a legendary bareback rider, 12-time national qualifier and 1997 champion, who’s set to be inducted into the Canadian Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame later this year.

Also in Edmonton, a trio of locals made their mark in the saddle bronc.

Millarville’s Layton Green was the picture of consistency with four top-five finishes, highlighted by winning day money with a score of 91 in round two, and finished third in the standings.

High River’s Lucas Macza finished fourth overall with Okotoks’ Sawyer Eirikson ending up in 12^th in a wildly competitive bronc riding competition.

In steer wrestling, the Okotoks duo of Harley Cole and Jonny Webb finished 10^th and 12^th, respectively, in the capital. Cole had a pair of top-four finishes, including a second-place showing with at time of 4.1 second in round two.

The 2024 CFR marked the 50^th anniversary of the national finals and its return to Edmonton, the original home of the event, for the first time since 2017.

The other CFR champions are as follows:

Bareback-Kody Lamb (champion and aggregate); Steer Wrestling-Dalton Massey (champion), Brendan Laye (aggregate); breakaway roping-Macy Auclair (champion and aggregate); Barrel Racing-Taylor Manning (champion and aggregate); Saddle Bronc-Zeke Thurston (champion), Logan Hay (aggregate); Team Roping Header-Kavis Drake (champion),Kash Bonnett (aggregate); Team Roping Heeler-Jeremy Buhler (champion), Logan Spady (aggregate); Tie Down Roping-Haven Meged (champion), Beau Cooper (aggregate); Bull Riding-William Barrows (champion and aggregate), All-Around Champion-Logan Spady; Kenny McLean High Point Winner-Kyle Wanchuk; Novice Bareback-Jace Lomheim; Novice Saddle Bronc-Lonnie Dunn; Jr. Steer Riding-Davis Young.