For Tim Devine, the 11th annual Western Wisconsin Regional High School Rodeo could hardly have been better.

“I think it went fantastic,” said Devine, chairman of the event for the Coulee Region Riders Club, which hosts the rodeo at its grounds south of Holmen on Briggs Road. “The weather was great, the kids rode hard and nobody got banged up too bad.”

Devine nearly got banged up himself, though. At the end of the day Saturday while moving bulls out of the roughstock pen for the night, six of the bulls broke loose and Devine nearly got run over in the process.

This year’s bulls, from Three Hills Rodeo Company, were a bit on the young side, he said, and wanted a taste of freedom, which they got. Devine said the bulls slipped into the woods on the riders club grounds and spent the evening there.

The bulls were rounded up in the morning, in plenty of time for Sunday afternoon’s wrapup of the rodeo events that began Friday evening.

Dustin Johanning of Highland, Wis., won the all-around cowboy title. He won the steer wrestling and took third in calf roping.

Kate Timmerman of Dubuque, Iowa, won all-around cowgirl honors, with a first-place finish in breakaway roping and a second-place finish in team roping (with Ellen Nolan).

Among area riders, Jenna Johnson of Mindoro fared the best, taking first-place in pole bending, while Bailey Kyser, a fellow Melrose-Mindoro High School student, took second in barrel racing. Danna Jessie, also a Mel-Min student, took fourth in goat tying.