STEPHENVILLE — Four members of Tarleton State University’s women’s rodeo team will compete June 14-20 at the College National Finals Rodeo in Casper, Wyo., after the Texans finished second in the Lone Star Region and qualified for a chance at the program’s fifth national title.
The group carries a wealth of ability and confidence in their quest for a national championship. “They each have a strong work ethic,” said Tarleton State women’s coach Brittany Stewart, “and they’re very talented. They push each other, they balance each other and they support each other. That’s what makes this group great.”
Team members Kaylie Garza, Rylee Abel, Jenna Fulton and Faith Lundberg placed second in the highly competitive Lone Star Region of the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association to earn their shot at the 2026 title.
“We have great chances for individual and team success,” Stewart said. “This is a special opportunity. Now it’s just about enjoying the moment and competing and representing Tarleton State well, and I think they’ll do that.”
Garza is the lone repeat CNFR qualifier after earning a spot in the event last year as a breakaway roper. This season she took third place in the Lone Star Region in goat tying, her specialty.
Garza’s 2025-26 season featured first-place finishes at the Sul Ross State Rodeo in Alpine and the Angelo State University Rodeo.
Does returning to Casper make her the team’s leader?
“We’re all leaders,” said the sophomore psychology major from Marion, Texas. “We all push each other and hold each other accountable.”
Even so, the team’s youngest member, freshman biomedical science major Faith Lundberg, says she looks to Garza for things only a previous qualifier could offer.
“We’ve been picking her brain to find out little things the everyday person wouldn’t think about,” said Lundberg, a native of Nanton, Alberta, Canada. “She’s been really helpful.”
Wins at Weatherford and Fort Worth and a runner-up finish at Sul Ross were season highlights for Lundberg, who won the season’s Lone Star Region goat tying championship.
As the regional reserve champion in both the breakaway roping and the all-around, Stephenville senior Rylee Abel will compete in both the breakaway and goat tying events in Casper.
Abel’s seven top five regular season finishes included a first in goat tying at Vernon College and a breakaway win at ASU.
She said her teammates’ support for one another is a great strength of the team.
“My friends are very motivated, and that motivates me to believe in myself and have confidence,” she said. “The main thing we’ve given each other is the confidence that we can do it. We have God and we have each other to get through it.”
Fulton, regional breakaway champion, is a business administration graduate student from St. Lawrence, S.D., making her first CNFR appearance.
“This season I learned to stick to the plan and have confidence in myself and my horse,” she said. “We both know how to do the job. We just have to make the best run we can, one calf at a time.”
Fulton finished first at the Weatherford College Rodeo and at the Fort Worth Stock Show College Rodeo and was third at the Sul Ross spring rodeo in Pecos.
She said being a part of Tarleton State’s rodeo legacy has made her and her teammates work diligently to earn their place in Casper.
“Everybody has worked really hard,” she said. “To get ready for the college finals we’ve been roping together to keep our skills sharp.”
Those skills, of course, will be paramount, but Fulton said the unit’s camaraderie is also vital to the team’s success.
“The dedication each of us has and the support system we have with the coaches is amazing,” she said. “All the CNFR qualifiers are some of my best friends; it’s crazy how close we are, and that makes us better because we’re surrounded by such good people that want to do well.”
Though they all expect success in Casper, Lundberg’s assessment of the team’s chances at the CNFR includes bringing a national crown to Stephenville.
“We’re going there to win it,” she said. “We came out of the toughest region in the nation, so the hard part is over. Now we just have to be consistent, finish it off and have fun.”
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