The Fresno State Bulldoggers club rodeo team will showcase the region’s second-ranked men’s and women’s teams at its home rodeo Friday, Nov. 7, at the Clovis Rodeo Grounds (748 Rodeo Dr.).
Competition opens at 8 a.m. with a slack round that offers free admission and features action in the 10 men’s and women’s events.
The evening final round starts at 6 p.m., and general admission tickets are $15 online or in person. Fresno State students with a campus ID can get tickets for $12, and the event is free to veterans and youth ages 5 and younger.
A concert featuring Joe Peters and Justin Lawrence will follow the event.
Three Fresno State students lead their respective West Coast Region standings – senior Brayden Liberio (bull riding), junior Sutton Mang (breakaway roping) and sophomore Garrett Mathias (team roping heeler).
Three others rank top three in their events – seniors Kendall Patterson (second, team roping header), Tyler Jones (third, team roping header) and freshman Collin Snyder (second, team roping heeler).
The team will also compete at its final fall event hosted by Bakersfield College later in the weekend at the Kern County Fairgrounds Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 8 and 9. Fresno State’s other action this fall came at events hosted by Feather River College in Quincy in early October.
After additional events at other locations in the spring, the top two men’s and women’s teams from each region earn automatic invitations to the 2026 College National Finals Rodeo June 14 to 20 in Casper, Wyoming.
Students ranked top three in their events can also qualify individually from the 12 regions across the nation.
Jones (of Friant) was a College National Finals Rodeo qualifier in team roping in 2023, 2024 and 2025, as well as in saddle bronc riding in 2025. Sage Pearce (Santa Maria) competed at the same event in breakaway roping in 2024 and 2025 as did Brayden Liberio (Caliente) in bull riding in 2025. Junior Tanner Kerr (Red Bluff) also competed in steer wrestling, team roping and tie-down roping in his national event debut last June.
The team is coached by Uhuru Adem, a two-time, collegiate national finals saddle bronc qualifier for Fresno State. He has guided three men’s teams to College National Finals Rodeo bids, including a 13th-place finish in 2022, the Bulldoggers’ highest finish in recent history. The women’s team also placed 19th in 2022, and qualified again in 2024 season after placing second in the region.
The program started in 1946 and officially became a club in 1949 — the same year the first collegiate national finals were held in San Francisco.
More information on the team is available on the club’s Facebook and Instagram pages.
