MISSOULA, Mont. – The University of Providence rodeo team concluded their season at the University of Montana Spring Rodeo this past weekend.

"We did see some improvement this weekend," head coach Sylvan La Cross said. "It was good to see some of the kids make some changes. They may not have made it to the short round, but we saw a lot of personal bests on the season. Things started clicking the right way. We made things happen."

The rodeo, which began Friday evening and continued throughout the day on Saturday, presented some scheduling issues for some of the Argos. The University of Providence graduation ceremony was scheduled for Saturday afternoon, so a handful of the team was forced to be the first ones to compete in the breakaway roping Saturday morning.

"As first out in the breakaway roping, you don't get to see how the calves are," La Cross said. "You're the first ones on them. We found out that they're pretty quick."

The event in Missoula was the last rodeo that the five seniors will compete in as Argos. Jami Addison, Cayden Diefenbach, Victoria Kunishi, McKinnon Little and Owen Ostberg will move on from the team.

"Losing them is going to be a big hit," La Cross said. "Jami and McKinnon, I've got to watch them since their freshman year. It was really cool for me to finally see a whole class go through. Cayden has been a rock to the team. She's a great teammate and friends with everybody.  Owen was really helpful for us as a manager. He helped us a lot at our home rodeo. Victoria was consistent throughout her entire tenure here. It was nice to see them all get what they were here for and get to rodeo a little bit to end it out on."

La Cross hopes to use this spring season as a momentum-builder heading into the fall. The spring season showcased the abilities of some of his younger kids, who he hopes will use the summer to prepare for a competitive fall season.

"We have to take some care of injuries that we sustained at practice," he said. "We have to let our horses heal up. We signed one girl, and are waiting to hear back from some kids. I'm hoping that we can get rolling in the fall and build some momentum. If we can get some momentum rolling, there's a brighter future for us."