Boisjoli-Meged Stays Rolling at Wrangler National Finals Breakaway Roping

By: Ann Bleiker

The Alberta-born cowgirl now living in Stephenville, Texas, had a single hiccup – a no-time in Round 3 – but otherwise was dominant in placing on the four calves she caught on the first of two days of world championship competition. She shared the second-round victory with Hali Williams and Cheyanne McCartney and won the fifth round to put an exclamation mark on her day.

“It wasn’t exactly the way I wanted it to go, because I wanted to catch 10 calves here, but I’m definitely not complaining,” said Boisjoli-Meged, who earned $16,379 Tuesday and pushed her season earnings to nearly $181,000 with the final five go-rounds of the year ahead of her Wednesday.

“I’m super excited to get into tomorrow. I’m actually very proud of myself that I was able to stay level-headed this year, and I came back after missing a calf and was able to stay after them and not get down.”

With one day remaining, Hali Williams of Comanche, Texas, remains in chase mode and is excelling during the competition at the South Point Equestrian Center in Las Vegas.

She posted the fastest run of the two-day championship with a 1.9-second run to win the fourth go-round, all while still recovering from an incident she suffered two months ago that left her with a tear in her Achilles tendon and other foot injuries. She credited her doctors and Justin Sportsmedicine chiropractor Shawn Scott with giving her the chance to chase the WPRA world championship.

“Right now I’m super emotional,” Hali Williams said “We didn’t know if we were going to be here this week. There for a little bit, I couldn’t walk; I couldn’t do anything with all this extreme pain. Thinking of the longevity of my career, if I roped this week, would it ruin my chances for next year by being out of surgery?

“That 1.9 run was as fast as I’ve thrown in a couple of months. I was just glad I held on, but if you watch it back, I got my knee bent and couldn’t put any weight on that right foot, and I was slowly sliding off.”

She finished with the share of the second-round win and the outright fourth-round buckle, she pocketed $9,254. She trails Boisjoli-Meged in the world standings by about $25,000.

“I try not to think about anything but my start and just let my muscle memory take over after that,” Boisjoli-Meged said. “I set a game plan in the third round and tried to do too much and think through the run, and I missed the calf, so I went back to the original game plan to just stay aggressive.”

That approach worked for her and for Taylor Munsell of Alva, Oklahoma, who won two go-rounds, placed in two others and leads the aggregate race with a five-run cumulative time of 22.0 seconds. Cheyanne McCartney of Kingston, Oklahoma, is second, and reigning world champ Martha Angelone of Stephenville is third in the average.

If Boisjoli-Meged is harboring any pressure from being the top dog, she isn’t showing.

“I have a lot of family here, and I think through my family I’m able to stay grounded,” she said. “I’m just going to try to be around them and soak up this time with them. I think this is just a special time in my life. I don’t think I’ll ever get this time back, so I want to cherish these moments.”

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Courtesy of WPRA.