Show and Sale Records Broken at 120th National Western
DENVER, CO., January 26, 2026 – In the inaugural year of exhibiting livestock in the Sue Anschutz-Rodgers Livestock Center, the largest agriculture building in the U.S. bearing the name of a woman, female junior exhibitors swept all four species.
Sayde Allen, Elk City, Okla., exhibited the grand champion market goat and the grand champion market lamb; Maria Frasch, Attica, Ind., exhibited the grand champion market barrow; and Cannon Reimann, Ree Heights, S.D., exhibited the grand champion market steer.
Dayton Mortvedt, Lynnville, Iowa, exhibited the reserve champion market goat; Delaniee Moore, Canute, Okla., exhibited the reserve champion market lamb; Hadlie Bell, Bristow, Okla., exhibited the reserve champion market steer; and Bailey Stromberger, Illiff, Colo., exhibited the reserve champion market barrow.
The champion and reserve Catch a Calf exhibitors, Kate Maricle, Albion, Neb., sponsored by Mike and Eva Pugh, and reserve champion was Brianna Hollingsworth from Cheyenne, Wyo., sponsored by the Wyoming Elks Association added to the female-dominated junior show winners.
Notably, Cannon Reimann was presented the Nick Reimann Memorial Traveling Trophy, named in honor of her late father, Nick Riemann. The trophy was presented by her brother, Croix, who won the show in 2024 and her mom, Kyrstin Reimann-Doris, and her grandparents, Barry and Nora Reimann.
This is Sayde Allen’s third grand champion goat win, and she and Dayton Mortvedt were also grand and reserve champion market goat exhibitors at the 2024 National Western. Allen is the first junior exhibitor to win two species at the National Western.
The market steer show utilizes a three-man judging committee and one of those men is also the first woman to judge the steer show in Denver. Kyndal Reitzenstein grew up near Kersey in the cattle business. She livestock judged successfully in college and ended her competitive career at Oklahoma State University before returning as an assistant coach. She coached under Dr. Blake Bloomberg, who was also on the Denver steer judge panel. He called it a full circle moment before Reitzenstein went out and crowned the champion.
It was a packed house for the 2026 Auction of Junior Livestock Champions, presented by Farm Credit in the new CoBank Auction Arena inside the Sue Anschutz-Rodgers Livestock Center. Records were broken left and right in historic Stadium Arena, the Coliseum during a sold-out rodeo performance, and at The Sue.
The standing room only crowd and bidders set five new records across the top 8 animals, including the Grand Champion Market Steer, sold by Cannon Reimann of Ree Heights, SD., topping out at $320,000 purchased by Bank of Colorado. The top 8 champion animals collectively sold for a new record of $822,500, besting the old record by $185,000. The Catch a Calf champion and reserve also sold to the Round Up Riders and the Denver Chamber of Commerce for a new record high of $145,000.
Iliff, Colorado, exhibitor Bailey Stromberger also set a record, selling her Colorado bred and raised reserve champion market hog for $120,000 to Transwest Trucks.
In the first – and only of its kind – junior supreme heifer drive, it was KayLee Langford, Breckenridge, Texas, who showed her Angus heifer all the way to the first Supreme Heifer title and $11,000 at Denver, judged by Dan and Mark Hoge of Illinois.
The 120th National Western wrapped up over the weekend with the prospect feeder heifer, prospect breeding heifer, and prospect steer shows won by South Dakota’s Cannon Reimann, Colorado’s Jake King, and Nebraska’s Chesney Prinz respectively.
Source: Western Ag Network
