Valley sophomore David Clapp is currently in sixth place in bareback riding at the CNFR, but has to wait for other riders to finish their preliminaries to find out if he made the finals. (Dan Hubbell/NIRA) [Click to enlarge]

CASPER, Wyo. -- One Missouri Valley College cowboy is in, three are out and two more await today's results to find out who made the cut for Saturday's championship round in the College National Finals Rodeo at Casper, Wyo.

The Vikings' only entry to perform Wednesday was freshman Will Smith, who led the saddle bronc competition after the second go-round. However, Smith didn't finish his ride and dropped down to eighth place, and now must hope the horses prevail against the five opponents who will be looking for their third successful attempts -- and that the two foes who are within 75.0 points of his 151.5 points by completing one of two tries don't score well.

While Smith sits in limbo, junior teammate Kirk Nelson only dropped one spot -- to sixth place -- during an idle fourth day of the meet. Having three rides to his credit, Nelson cannot finish the preliminaries any worse than 11th place and is ticketed for the finals.

Not so for senior bull rider Cooper Link. He's only gone eight seconds once in three mounts and currently stands in ninth place. However, he'll be knocked back to at least 13th place, and out of the running, when the four riders with two successful gos wrap up their prelims.

Sophomore Jake Shaw, who led the NIRA standings in steer wrestling at the end of the regular season, is also out. He has his third go today, but not scoring in the second round has him out of contention since 13 contestants put up times in all three attempts.

Sophomore Kyle Brennecke also has his third go left in bareback riding, but is in 33rd place with one ride remaining. With 10 cowboys going three for three -- including Vikings sophomore David Clapp -- and 10 more still with a chance to do so, Brennecke's chances are no better than slim.

Clapp is in sixth place and is hoping to see some low scores. Nine of the 10 with a chance of posting three good rides are within 69.5 points of his 209.5, so Clapp will need for no more than six to match his score.

Valley, in fourth place after Monday's show, has not added to its team score since and sits in 25th place. Shaw and Brennecke finish up today.