Shantell Brewer
Photo by: Brian Morse
Emotional Final Big Sky Region Run Vaults Shantell Brewer into CNFR
6/13/2025 8:54:00 AM | Women's Rodeo
In what could have been her final college barrel race, Shantell Brewer made the biggest run of her life
BOZEMAN, Mont. (June 13, 2025) – In the moments before the biggest barrel race run of Shantell Brewer's life, she found herself surprisingly calm.
"I was kind of clear minded going in," Montana State's senior said of her performance in the short go of the University of Montana rodeo in Missoula on May 3. "I knew I needed to have a good run and so I was like, well, I've just got to lay it all out there, no matter what."
The drama of the moment was real. In what could have been the final race of her college career, Brewer needed to win the final race of the Big Sky Region season to qualify for the College National Finals Rodeo for the first time. "I was nervous for her," confirmed Bobcat head coach Kyle Whitaker.
"It was a lot," Brewer said, acknowledging that the rain that muddied the arena and delayed the rodeo by about a half-hour compounded the drama. But the graduate student from Dupree, South Dakota, guided her horse Frenchie through the caked mud for a combined time of 35.53 to win the average and vault her into her first CNFR.
Or rather, into position to advance. But she was going to have to wait what seemed "like forever" to learn for sure. Big Sky Region secretary Torie Eiker still had to finalize the results.
"The sound system really wasn't working very well" at the Missoula County Fairgrounds, Brewer said, "and so I heard my time and I heard a few other times, but I couldn't hear everybody's. So I thought I had it made but I didn't know, and that's when the nerves kicked in."
So the waiting turned into pacing near her horse trailer. "I couldn't even unsaddle my horse, I was just pacing back and forth because I knew I had to give (Eiker) time to figure it up and I didn't want to bombard her. I was talking to myself, and finally my friends came over and were like, 'We think you made it! We think you made it! You need to go ask.'"
Her nerves anchored her to her horse trailer for another few minutes – "Like literally, I couldn't (go ask), I was so nervous," she said – but the weight of the moment eventually won. "Finally, I built up the courage and I walked into the secretary's office and I peeked my head in. I'm really good friends with (Eiker), and when she saw me she said, 'You got it!'"
The emotions, and the friends, poured in. "We were both kind of waiting to see what the final tally was," said fellow senior Haven Wolstein, Brewer's closest friend on the team who had also endured a wait to learn that she's advancing to the college finals. "We gave each other the biggest hug."
That opened the floodgates. "Kyle (Whitaker) came and picked me up and spun me around. Savanna (Bolich, MSU's assistant coach) was there, multiple people on the team. Shelby (Rasmussen, a former teammate who now works in Learfield's college rodeo division) was there. So many people, and they were all just hugging and congratulating me, and I was so happy for myself, but seeing my true friends really celebrate me and enjoy that moment because they knew all the struggles I've been through, that was super special."
Part of the day's drama arose from recent history. One year earlier Brewer entered the regular season finale in Missoula with a similar opportunity. And although "I made a really good run," it wasn't enough to move her into the top three in the region for automatic CNFR qualification. So in the time before learning of her fate this year, "it really felt like de ja vu. I'm like, 'Oh, no, not again, I'm going to barely miss it.'"
For Brewer and most competitors, rodeo isn't so much a sport as a multi-generational way of life. "My parents own a ranch and they rodeoed in high school," she said, "both of them. They didn't go on with it after that, they focused on building the ranch that we have now. And I'm so grateful for that. But I've been riding ever since I can remember."
Rodeo wasn't Brewer's only sporting interest growing up. "I was big into basketball," she said, until her mother pointed out that "I was not tall enough to go on that (path), which is reasonable of her." Brewer also encountered a situation common in team sports, where "I didn't enjoy some teammates not caring as much (about success) as I did."
Through it all, she says "I was still really invested in rodeo. I think it clicked for me in high school (that) in rodeo it's all on you and how much you care and how much you try. There's other elements that you can't control, but I enjoyed that aspect. And so for me, that really changed my mindset to, I can take this as far as I want to go, no matter what anybody else has to say or do. And then I was just all in."
Brewer and Frenchie will be all in pretty much as soon as the CNFR begins. They'll be up in slack on Monday morning, then again for the second go on Tuesday morning. But the turnaround is quick, as they're up in the third go during Tuesday night's performance, the rodeo's first public session and beginning of the final long go-round.
Whitaker says that two events in one day is something athletes "are used to in college rodeo," and that it "gets your motor running." Bolich said that a good run early in that stretch can create momentum, and that "she's really a threat once she gets on a roll."
MSU's other barrel racing entry, Anneliese McCurry, faces the same schedule, and Brewer said three runs in a compressed amount of time forces athletes to be mindful of their horse. "I feel like in other events it isn't as big a deal, but barrel racing is harder on your horse. So recovery time is important."
Frenchie, who became Brewer's horse just less than three years ago, traces her lineage to Frenchman's Guy, a famed barrel racing stud. "She has a lot of attitude and a lot of spunk and can be a pain sometimes," Brewer said with a smile, "but she loves her job and she just gives me all of her heart and all of her try every single run."
Frenchie had "started very well" as a barrel racing horse when Brewer purchased her from an acquaintance in South Dakota. "I just saw the potential in her," Brewer said. "She's really big. She's got long legs, and I was needing to level up, and so I bought her and started working with her, and then she became my main girl about a year and a half ago. And so this was her first year running at all the college rodeos, and she just did amazing."
"They are a great team," Bolich says of Brewer and Frenchie. "Shantell rides her great and she would not fit just anyone. They are a true team."
Brewer rides into the CNFR on the strength of an excellent senior season. In addition to winning at Missoula she won the barrel racing event at UM Western, took all-around honors at Northwest College and finished in the top five six times throughout the season. Finishing third in the Big Sky Region in barrel racing is no small feat, Bolich said. "It's so hard to finish high in this region, it's a great accomplishment."
As her collegiate career nears its conclusion, Brewer is grateful for the support she's received as a Bobcat rodeo student-athlete. She understands it well, having transitioned with the program from club sport to varsity status. In Bobcat Athletics rodeo utilizes the academic, strength and conditioning, athletic training, nutrition and other support areas.
"I've been here so long that when I first started we weren't a part of athletics," she said. "I'm one of the last few that have experienced the transition, and it's been night and day, honestly. It was a great program before, but it has just jumped leaps and bounds."
Rasmussen was Brewer's teammate early in her time at Montana State, and served as a Bobcat assistant coach after her time competing. She has clear memories of Brewer's entry into the MSU program. "From the minute I met Shantell at the team welcome barbecue at Coach (Andy) Bolich's house, I knew she would have a huge impact on my life and the entire MSU Rodeo team," Rasmussen said. "She has truly been a light and has directly contributed to the team culture and success."
Brewer endured not only a coaching transition, from Andy Bolich to Whitaker, but the program's move from club sport to varsity athletics program. She said she's benefited from the strength and nutrition elements offered by Bobcat Athletics. "I've always been big into working out," she said. I always played other sports in high school so the weight room and the Fueling Station (nutrition center) and all the things that come with Bobcat Athletics have been great."
Another element of support comes from the Chute Boss Club. MSU Rodeo's booster organization helped support the purchase and eventual expansion of the indoor practice facility and other special projects and events.
"Chute Boss has just been amazing," she said. "They give us so much support and they continue to push to (improve the program). We see that every day out at practice because we get hay, new sand, a new setup for our arena, we get new panels, whatever it is we need. They are always renovating stuff around there and trying to make it the best possible, and I think they will continue to do that because you can always get better. We experience the Chute Boss Club and how they support us every single day."
One of the events every Bobcat rodeo student-athlete looks forward to is the football team's run-out, which is led on horseback by members of the rodeo squad. "We get so much support from that (run-out)," she says. "To us it's cool, but we get to ride horses every day so it's not hard or (unusual) for us. But people love it and they think it's the most amazing thing, and we love being able to do it for the fans because they keep us going and they drive the support."
The moments before the run-out, when music begins to play and the roar of the crowd swells, is unlike any other, she said. "The horses get so wound up. They hear the music playing and the (horses) that have done it multiple times know the intro song so you can just feel them getting ready to go. And it is the coolest feeling. The crowd gets loud and your horses are pumped, you're pumped, and it can get a little chaotic because everybody is so excited, but it's so much fun. It's the greatest thing."
After previously completing her bachelor's degree in accounting, Brewer finished the school year by earning her master's degree and finishing one section of exams in the process of becoming certified as an accountant. She plans to finish that process this summer before beginning a position in the Bozeman office of the national accounting firm Wipfli.
"For me personally the accounting program was amazing," she said. "I love my professors. I'm still really close with them. They have been amazing in supporting me, not just in academics but also in rodeo. And I think that's a big thing. If I had to miss class they worked with me and they definitely checked in and they made sure I was doing okay time management wise. I appreciated that. From an academic standpoint, we have some really amazing professors in the accounting department. They really, truly care about us."
Brewer will continue rodeoing beyond her college career, an experience she's anticipated for years. "It is a long season, rodeo kind of never ends," she said. "We kind of do it all year long and it's something that I've always loved, but it definitely really clicked for me in my early high school years. That's when I was like, this is what I want to do. I want to rodeo in college and professionally."
Rasmussen said that one particular characteristic helps lift Brewer, as well as those around her, in every situation she encounters. "She shows up to practice every single day with a smile on her face, cheering all of her teammates on constantly," Ramussen said. "She has had this amazing ability to keep a positive attitude through the highs and lows of rodeo, COVID, an extremely difficult degree and master's program, and a full-time job. With this ability to keep her head held high and with her work ethic, I had no doubt in my mind that she would represent the Bobcats at the CNFR before her time at MSU was over."
Whitaker summarizes Brewer's positive attitude succinctly. "It's impossible to be in a bad mood when you're talking to Shantell."
Wherever rodeo leads her, she knows her mind will always follow her heart back to the days wearing the Blue and Gold vest. That time culminates next week in Casper, but the highlight will always be the moments following her crucial, clinching run in Missoula.
"That moment will forever stick in my head," she said, "and it's not really the fact that I made it (to the CNFR). It's the fact that those people celebrating had been there for me. That means so much more. And so that moment will always just be extra special."
#GoCatsGo
"I was kind of clear minded going in," Montana State's senior said of her performance in the short go of the University of Montana rodeo in Missoula on May 3. "I knew I needed to have a good run and so I was like, well, I've just got to lay it all out there, no matter what."
The drama of the moment was real. In what could have been the final race of her college career, Brewer needed to win the final race of the Big Sky Region season to qualify for the College National Finals Rodeo for the first time. "I was nervous for her," confirmed Bobcat head coach Kyle Whitaker.
"It was a lot," Brewer said, acknowledging that the rain that muddied the arena and delayed the rodeo by about a half-hour compounded the drama. But the graduate student from Dupree, South Dakota, guided her horse Frenchie through the caked mud for a combined time of 35.53 to win the average and vault her into her first CNFR.
Or rather, into position to advance. But she was going to have to wait what seemed "like forever" to learn for sure. Big Sky Region secretary Torie Eiker still had to finalize the results.
"The sound system really wasn't working very well" at the Missoula County Fairgrounds, Brewer said, "and so I heard my time and I heard a few other times, but I couldn't hear everybody's. So I thought I had it made but I didn't know, and that's when the nerves kicked in."
So the waiting turned into pacing near her horse trailer. "I couldn't even unsaddle my horse, I was just pacing back and forth because I knew I had to give (Eiker) time to figure it up and I didn't want to bombard her. I was talking to myself, and finally my friends came over and were like, 'We think you made it! We think you made it! You need to go ask.'"
Her nerves anchored her to her horse trailer for another few minutes – "Like literally, I couldn't (go ask), I was so nervous," she said – but the weight of the moment eventually won. "Finally, I built up the courage and I walked into the secretary's office and I peeked my head in. I'm really good friends with (Eiker), and when she saw me she said, 'You got it!'"
The emotions, and the friends, poured in. "We were both kind of waiting to see what the final tally was," said fellow senior Haven Wolstein, Brewer's closest friend on the team who had also endured a wait to learn that she's advancing to the college finals. "We gave each other the biggest hug."
That opened the floodgates. "Kyle (Whitaker) came and picked me up and spun me around. Savanna (Bolich, MSU's assistant coach) was there, multiple people on the team. Shelby (Rasmussen, a former teammate who now works in Learfield's college rodeo division) was there. So many people, and they were all just hugging and congratulating me, and I was so happy for myself, but seeing my true friends really celebrate me and enjoy that moment because they knew all the struggles I've been through, that was super special."
Part of the day's drama arose from recent history. One year earlier Brewer entered the regular season finale in Missoula with a similar opportunity. And although "I made a really good run," it wasn't enough to move her into the top three in the region for automatic CNFR qualification. So in the time before learning of her fate this year, "it really felt like de ja vu. I'm like, 'Oh, no, not again, I'm going to barely miss it.'"
For Brewer and most competitors, rodeo isn't so much a sport as a multi-generational way of life. "My parents own a ranch and they rodeoed in high school," she said, "both of them. They didn't go on with it after that, they focused on building the ranch that we have now. And I'm so grateful for that. But I've been riding ever since I can remember."
Rodeo wasn't Brewer's only sporting interest growing up. "I was big into basketball," she said, until her mother pointed out that "I was not tall enough to go on that (path), which is reasonable of her." Brewer also encountered a situation common in team sports, where "I didn't enjoy some teammates not caring as much (about success) as I did."
Through it all, she says "I was still really invested in rodeo. I think it clicked for me in high school (that) in rodeo it's all on you and how much you care and how much you try. There's other elements that you can't control, but I enjoyed that aspect. And so for me, that really changed my mindset to, I can take this as far as I want to go, no matter what anybody else has to say or do. And then I was just all in."
Brewer and Frenchie will be all in pretty much as soon as the CNFR begins. They'll be up in slack on Monday morning, then again for the second go on Tuesday morning. But the turnaround is quick, as they're up in the third go during Tuesday night's performance, the rodeo's first public session and beginning of the final long go-round.
Whitaker says that two events in one day is something athletes "are used to in college rodeo," and that it "gets your motor running." Bolich said that a good run early in that stretch can create momentum, and that "she's really a threat once she gets on a roll."
MSU's other barrel racing entry, Anneliese McCurry, faces the same schedule, and Brewer said three runs in a compressed amount of time forces athletes to be mindful of their horse. "I feel like in other events it isn't as big a deal, but barrel racing is harder on your horse. So recovery time is important."
Frenchie, who became Brewer's horse just less than three years ago, traces her lineage to Frenchman's Guy, a famed barrel racing stud. "She has a lot of attitude and a lot of spunk and can be a pain sometimes," Brewer said with a smile, "but she loves her job and she just gives me all of her heart and all of her try every single run."
Frenchie had "started very well" as a barrel racing horse when Brewer purchased her from an acquaintance in South Dakota. "I just saw the potential in her," Brewer said. "She's really big. She's got long legs, and I was needing to level up, and so I bought her and started working with her, and then she became my main girl about a year and a half ago. And so this was her first year running at all the college rodeos, and she just did amazing."
"They are a great team," Bolich says of Brewer and Frenchie. "Shantell rides her great and she would not fit just anyone. They are a true team."
Brewer rides into the CNFR on the strength of an excellent senior season. In addition to winning at Missoula she won the barrel racing event at UM Western, took all-around honors at Northwest College and finished in the top five six times throughout the season. Finishing third in the Big Sky Region in barrel racing is no small feat, Bolich said. "It's so hard to finish high in this region, it's a great accomplishment."
As her collegiate career nears its conclusion, Brewer is grateful for the support she's received as a Bobcat rodeo student-athlete. She understands it well, having transitioned with the program from club sport to varsity status. In Bobcat Athletics rodeo utilizes the academic, strength and conditioning, athletic training, nutrition and other support areas.
"I've been here so long that when I first started we weren't a part of athletics," she said. "I'm one of the last few that have experienced the transition, and it's been night and day, honestly. It was a great program before, but it has just jumped leaps and bounds."
Rasmussen was Brewer's teammate early in her time at Montana State, and served as a Bobcat assistant coach after her time competing. She has clear memories of Brewer's entry into the MSU program. "From the minute I met Shantell at the team welcome barbecue at Coach (Andy) Bolich's house, I knew she would have a huge impact on my life and the entire MSU Rodeo team," Rasmussen said. "She has truly been a light and has directly contributed to the team culture and success."
Brewer endured not only a coaching transition, from Andy Bolich to Whitaker, but the program's move from club sport to varsity athletics program. She said she's benefited from the strength and nutrition elements offered by Bobcat Athletics. "I've always been big into working out," she said. I always played other sports in high school so the weight room and the Fueling Station (nutrition center) and all the things that come with Bobcat Athletics have been great."
Another element of support comes from the Chute Boss Club. MSU Rodeo's booster organization helped support the purchase and eventual expansion of the indoor practice facility and other special projects and events.
"Chute Boss has just been amazing," she said. "They give us so much support and they continue to push to (improve the program). We see that every day out at practice because we get hay, new sand, a new setup for our arena, we get new panels, whatever it is we need. They are always renovating stuff around there and trying to make it the best possible, and I think they will continue to do that because you can always get better. We experience the Chute Boss Club and how they support us every single day."
One of the events every Bobcat rodeo student-athlete looks forward to is the football team's run-out, which is led on horseback by members of the rodeo squad. "We get so much support from that (run-out)," she says. "To us it's cool, but we get to ride horses every day so it's not hard or (unusual) for us. But people love it and they think it's the most amazing thing, and we love being able to do it for the fans because they keep us going and they drive the support."
The moments before the run-out, when music begins to play and the roar of the crowd swells, is unlike any other, she said. "The horses get so wound up. They hear the music playing and the (horses) that have done it multiple times know the intro song so you can just feel them getting ready to go. And it is the coolest feeling. The crowd gets loud and your horses are pumped, you're pumped, and it can get a little chaotic because everybody is so excited, but it's so much fun. It's the greatest thing."
After previously completing her bachelor's degree in accounting, Brewer finished the school year by earning her master's degree and finishing one section of exams in the process of becoming certified as an accountant. She plans to finish that process this summer before beginning a position in the Bozeman office of the national accounting firm Wipfli.
"For me personally the accounting program was amazing," she said. "I love my professors. I'm still really close with them. They have been amazing in supporting me, not just in academics but also in rodeo. And I think that's a big thing. If I had to miss class they worked with me and they definitely checked in and they made sure I was doing okay time management wise. I appreciated that. From an academic standpoint, we have some really amazing professors in the accounting department. They really, truly care about us."
Brewer will continue rodeoing beyond her college career, an experience she's anticipated for years. "It is a long season, rodeo kind of never ends," she said. "We kind of do it all year long and it's something that I've always loved, but it definitely really clicked for me in my early high school years. That's when I was like, this is what I want to do. I want to rodeo in college and professionally."
Rasmussen said that one particular characteristic helps lift Brewer, as well as those around her, in every situation she encounters. "She shows up to practice every single day with a smile on her face, cheering all of her teammates on constantly," Ramussen said. "She has had this amazing ability to keep a positive attitude through the highs and lows of rodeo, COVID, an extremely difficult degree and master's program, and a full-time job. With this ability to keep her head held high and with her work ethic, I had no doubt in my mind that she would represent the Bobcats at the CNFR before her time at MSU was over."
Whitaker summarizes Brewer's positive attitude succinctly. "It's impossible to be in a bad mood when you're talking to Shantell."
Wherever rodeo leads her, she knows her mind will always follow her heart back to the days wearing the Blue and Gold vest. That time culminates next week in Casper, but the highlight will always be the moments following her crucial, clinching run in Missoula.
"That moment will forever stick in my head," she said, "and it's not really the fact that I made it (to the CNFR). It's the fact that those people celebrating had been there for me. That means so much more. And so that moment will always just be extra special."
#GoCatsGo
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