The Cyclone Stampede, an annual rodeo sponsored by the ISU Rodeo Club, will host schools from around the Midwest today and Saturday.

“The main thing our club does all year is the rodeo,” said Jake Heim, Stampede co-chair.

Schools around the region send contestants, who participate both individually and as a team in the Stampede, he said.

“Individuals compete for themselves, and points accumulate for the team,” said Heim, sophomore in animal science.

Individual winners will receive engraved leather planners and teams will compete for trophies.

Jeff Waldstein, Stampede co-chair, said about 24 schools are expected to participate in the event, with more than 200 competitors.

Jeff’s brother Sean Waldstein, Rodeo Club member, said the club has received accolades for past competitions.

“Last year, we had a lot of the other teams compliment us and say this was one of the best organized rodeos they competed in,” said Sean Waldstein, sophomore in exercise and sports science.

The club has 46 members, four of which are team members, Heim said. All four team members are bull riders. The team members are those that compete, and the paid members help run the event.

More diversity, rather than just bull riders, should occur in the spring, with the addition of more team members, with some bareback and bronc riders, Heim said.

The shows will be tonight at 7 and Saturday at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. There will also be two slack performances – one following the show on Friday night and the other beginning Saturday morning around 8 a.m.

“Slack is the same thing as an actual performance, but during a performance you’re only allotted so many competitors during an event,” said Jeff Waldstein, junior in agricultural studies.

“People that do not make it into the performance are given an equal opportunity doing a slack performance to gain points.”

The rodeo will be at the ISU Rodeo Arena, two miles south of Mortensen Road on State Street.

Attendance last year was around 400 people, but the average is 275, Jeff said. The size of the audience varies with the weather.

The facilities were improved last year, due to funding through the Government of the Student Body.

“We had lots of remodeling and renovations,” Jeff Waldstein said.

“I think we spent right around $6,000.”

Admission is $5 for adults, $4 for students with identification, $3 for those 8 to18 years old and free for children 7 and under.

Attendance is not limited to just die-hard rodeo fans, Jeff Waldstein said.

“We get people from towns in surrounding areas, families with kids,” he said. “It’s not just an agger event.”