Cowtown Rodeo Xtreme Bulls Victory Vaults Colten Fritzlan Into PRCA Top 15

The veteran bull rider faced some difficulties leading up to his rides at the Cowtown Rodeo Xtreme Bulls earlier this week, but it netted him more than $17,000 in prize money.

Colten Fritzlan's trip to New Jersey paid big dividends as he covered three bulls and won the Cowtown Xtreme Bulls event. | Photo courtesy of Cowtown Rodeo's Facebook

There were plenty of opportunities for Colten Fritzlan to hang his head. Instead he kept pushing through. 

During the second week of August, the veteran bull rider looked at his upcoming schedule with excitement. He had drawn solid matchups at places like Lovington, N.M., and Logan, Utah. He expected to capitalize. Instead, he came up empty-handed. 

“I had seen what I had drawn the week before and I was just fired up. I was ready to get to these rodeos and expected to win a lot of money. But it just wasn’t going my way.” Fritzlan said.

“Tyler Kippes and I actually had a pretty good conversation after the Logan (Utah) rodeo. He really just kind of simplified everything for me. It was definitely a conversation that I needed. I think after that, it just took a lot of pressure and weight off. We just went back to riding bulls and having a lot of fun.”

That reset helped Fritzlan get back into rhythm a few days later with a win at the Missoula (Mont.) Stampede before traveling east to Woodstown Pilesgrove, N.J., for the Cowtown Rodeo Xtreme Bulls. 

His cross-country journey paid dividends as the Rifle, Colo., cowboy covered all three bulls he faced to win the average at Cowtown with 265 points. The trip to New Jersey alone was worth more than $17,000 with the win in Missoula making it a $22,000 week in total. 

While the outcome was big, it was far from easy. After his success in Missoula, Fritzlan and fellow bull rider Dylan Rice caught a flight out of Bozeman, Mont., to head east. The original schedule got them to Philadelphia about four hours before the bull riding started on Monday night. 

However, their connecting flight in Minnesota kept getting delayed. Bull rider Koby Jacobson waited for the pair at the airport and they all jumped in a vehicle together at around 6:30 p.m. As the group pulled up to the arena, the competition was getting underway. 

“It didn’t give us much time to think about a whole lot,” Fritzlan joked. 

While he had no personal familiarity with any of the bulls he matched up with, Fritzlan had watched footage online to get an idea of what he was up against. His opening ride against Cowtown Rodeo’s Crazy Cat yielded 87 points to place him third in the round. 

The next day, he faced another Cowtown Rodeo bull in Wilbur, posting an identical score, only this 87-point effort won the second go. In the short-round, Fritzlan’s first matchup got tangled in the chute, giving him the option for a re-ride. This time, he matched up with Rafter G Rodeo’s Western Hauler’s. 

“91 points later, that was that,” Fritzlan said of his runner-up finish in the round. 

The outcome was a huge momentum swing as Fritzlan aims for his second Wrangler National Finals Rodeo qualification and first since finishing third in the world back in 2020. It’s his second Xtreme Bulls event win of the season and his first three-head Xtreme Bulls win ever. 

The money from last week pushed him over the $100,000 plateau for the year as he’s currently sitting No. 14 in the PRCA World Standings with a little more than $119,000 earned so far. 

After overcoming some adversity earlier in the month, Fritzlan is grateful to be in a much better place going into the final few weeks of the regular season. And while it’s a good start, he knows the journey is far from over. 

“We’ve got a lot of work to do. We’re not what we want to be, but we’re one step closer each in every single day,” Fritzlan said. “(Being in the top 15), that is awesome and I am thankful for that, being in the position that I am in. But we’ve got a lot of work to do and a lot of bulls to get rode.”