The Vikings celebrate their Ozark Region championship following a victory at the North Arkansas Rodeo. (Photo contributed) [Click to enlarge]

HARRISON, Ark. -- The Missouri Valley College men's rodeo team didn't need to do anything special last week to secure the NIRA Ozark Region championship.

Instead, the Vikings turned in a sensational performance. Valley won the regular season-ending North Arkansas Rodeo at Harrison by a staggering margin, doubling the point total of second-place Troy (Ala.) with an off-the-charts 1,330 points -- 380 points higher than that of any of its four straight victories.

"We saw the opportunity to nail the coffin shut on our competitors," remarked MVC head coach Ken Mason. "We wanted to be sure to get the point across that this was not a fluke, we didn't just get lucky, and we deserved to win because we work hard and are dedicated."

The Vikings won four of six events, two by sophomore Jake Shaw of Cocoa, Fla. He claimed the all-around award with 350 points, taking first in both tie-down roping and steer wrestling -- in which he was No. 1 in the region.

Freshman Will Smith of Lugoff, S.C., and sophomore Kyle Brennecke of Grain Valley also came out on top of their main events. Smith led the saddle bronc riders as they accumulated 360 points, with sophomore Adam Gilchrist and senior Kirk Nelson coming in third and fourth.

Brennecke and sophomores David Clapp and Matt Cossitt were 1-2-3 in bareback riding for 370 points. Clapp's second place in bull riding and Nelson finishing sixth as a team roping heeler also contributed to the final count.

The Valley women came in third and fell 98.5 points short of Tennessee-Martin in the race for second place in the standings, and a bid to the College National Finals Rodeo. Region champion Arkansas-Monticello took the meet sweepstakes.

Worse than that, none of the Lady Vikings wound up in the top three of their events, which would have made them eligible for the CNFR. Junior Casey Chapman missed the cut in barrel racing by 60 points and senior Jill Adametz was a mere 2.5 points shy in goat tying, passed on the last weekend by West Alabama's Christi Heisman.

Like Adametz, junior Kallie Agre was fourth in breakaway roping.

Valley leads the NIRA national rankings with 7,905 points, but the main challengers still have rodeos remaining in their regions. Besides Shaw, the Vikings also had top-three season-long showings by Smith and Nelson in saddle bronc, Brennecke and Clapp in bareback and senior Cooper Link of Louisburg, Kan., in bull riding -- in which he came in second.

That's six qualifiers individually, and that's the maximum Mason can put on his line-up card when the week-long CNFR begins June 15 at Casper, Wyo.

"They will be hitting the roads, entering as many rodeos as possible all over the country," Mason detailed the Vikings' plans between now and the national meet. "It is competition against the best in the nation that will help make them better."