Sanders McElroy’s winning team roping effort highlights EMCC’s 2026 CNFR showing
The third time proved to be the charm for East Mississippi Community College team roping header Sanders McElroy and his brother, Scout, as the tandem posted a winning time of 4.3 seconds to tie for third-round team roping honors during the College National Finals Rodeo held this past week at the Ford Wyoming Center in Casper.
CASPER, Wyo. – The third time proved to be the charm for East Mississippi Community College team roping header Sanders McElroy and his brother, Scout, as the tandem posted a winning time of 4.3 seconds to tie for third-round team roping honors during the College National Finals Rodeo held this past week at the Ford Wyoming Center in Casper.
Head coach Morgan Goodrich's EMCC rodeo team was also represented at the week-long CNFR by 2026 Ozark Region steer wrestling champion Carson Powell, who competed in his specialty event as well as pairing with Southern Arkansas University's Westin Barnett in the team roping event.
After the McElroy brothers posted untimed runs during their first two performances earlier in the week, they regrouped and made their final performance of the season count. The Mountain View, Arkansas natives and former National High School Finals Rodeo participants bounced back with their season-best run to tie with the Weatherford College pairing of Denton Parish and Brock Borkman atop the Round 3 team roping leaderboard.
Wednesday's winning effort held up for the remainder of the week and resulted in the McElroys earning 75 points each for their respective schools. Scout, who occupies the heeler spot for the brother pairing, competes for Southern Arkansas University. The winning 4.3-second showing ultimately proved to be the week's top team roping clocking among the 183 total runs attempted between the 57 qualifying tandems and 12 championship-round participants. The awarded 75 points also resulted in the EMCC Lions placing 32nd nationally in the final 2026 CNFR men's team standings.
EMCC's Powell finished 19th overall during the week's CNFR steer wrestling competition, posting a 14th-place time of 5.5 seconds in the opening round and tying for 13th place with his third-round run of 5.6 seconds. The Benton, Arkansas product added an untimed run in the second round but rebounded to finish among the top half of the 42 steer wrestling competitors who qualified for this year's national championship. In addition, Powell paired with SAU's Barnett to post three untimed runs during the week's team roping competition.