Before a round, they draw a horse's name from a hat and assign them to bronco busters in a prearranged order to keep things "totally random" and "completely fair," Feild said. When a rider gets a bad draw, it means he drew a horse that isn't aggressive and doesn't buck hard, which hurts the rider's final score.

By the final night, Davis was in fourth place, but his final ride catapulted him to second place in the overall standings.

Feild was so impressed by Davis' performance, he saw a little bit of himself in this young cowpoke who is consistently improving with each passing year.

"He's gradually getting there," he said.

As for the rest of the Utah crew, Feild said he's proud of all the Utah competitors. Bello, Wright or Allen — who finished fifth, seventh and eighth, respectively, in their events — could have easily walked away with a championship buckle but "it just seemed like none of them could get on a roll," he said.

"All three of them will be back next year," he said.

Hannum is a extremely quick, tough cowboy, he said, and Solmonsen probably had the best showing of her pro rodeo career.

"It's tough to keep them barrel racing horses to their best night after night," he said.

Anything else about Silcox?

"What can you say about him?" Feild chuckled. "He's a world champion. Not many people can say that."

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