ELK POINT - The 2021 Wild Rose Rodeo Association finals In Rimbey last weekend capped off a great year for Elk Point cowboy Austin Young, who brought home a pair of championships from the three-day event.
Young led the points standing in both Tie Down Roping and Team Roping going into the finals after finishing in the money at eight Wild Rose rodeos during the season, and also finished second in Tie Down Roping and third in Team Roping at the Lakeland Rodeo Association’s St. Paul show. He also had a successful summer in steer wrestling, and was one of 10 competitors in the finals.
With a 800-point lead going into the Tie Down Roping finals, he added another 1,400 points with a third and two second-place finishes on the weekend for the year-end championship. He was also more than 300 points ahead of his nearest competitor in the Team Roping when he and header Koby Zimmer rode into the finals, coming out with another 1,000 points apiece after first and third place runs to win the year-end awards.
Young, whose mother Wendy says he has been twirling a lariat since he was six years old, is a third generation roper whose grandfather, the late Larry Lorenson, won the Lakeland Rodeo Association’s year-end Tie Down Roping, which at that time was called Calf Roping, award back in 1980. Larry and Wendy were among the first members of that newly formed association, where Wendy won a pair of barrel racing championships, with mom Norma cheering from the stands.
Austin and dad Charlie were frequent competitors in team roping at rodeos across the area over the years, as Austin practiced the skills that led him to a Canadian Jr. High School Team Roping Champion Header award in 2013 and an Alberta High School Team Roping Champion Header award three years later before he headed off to New Mexico where he was part of the college rodeo team.