COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Jesse Wright really knows how to make an impression.

On the week he officially became the PRCA Saddle Bronc Riding Rookie of the Year, Wright went out and treated his home-state fans to one of the best performances of his still blossoming career.

Wright won the first round of the Dodge Wilderness Circuit Finals Rodeo, presented by U.S. Smokeless Tobacco, in Ogden, Utah, and then placed in the other two, to win the average championship with 248 points on three head.

To pull this off, Wright, of Milford, Utah, had to beat defending circuit finals champion and five-time Wrangler NFR qualifier Rusty Allen and his own brother — reigning World Champion Cody Wright.

Jesse Wright, who finished 19th in the PRCA World Standings this year, banked earnings of $4,116 at the Oct. 22-24 rodeo and earned his first spot in the Dodge National Circuit Finals Rodeo, in Pocatello, Idaho, next April.

Other winners at the circuit finals were bareback rider Kaycee Feild of Elk Ridge, Utah (251 points on three head), steer wrestler Tom Lewis of Lehi, Utah (11.2 seconds on three head), team ropers Matt Sherwood of Pima, Ariz., and Rhen Richard of Roosevelt, Utah (15.0 seconds on three head), tie-down roper J.C. Malone of Hooper, Utah (26.9 seconds on three head), barrel racer Tracee Young of Delta, Utah (41.7 seconds on three runs) and bull rider Travis Atkinson of Lehi, Utah (88 points on one head).

The steer wrestling competition was especially hard-fought, with nine sub-four-second runs in the three rounds, led by Shayne Bennett of Riverton, Utah, who won the third round with an astonishing time of 2.9 seconds, just five-tenths of a second off the world record.