Youth competitors Kai Clark and Mandie O’Neil delivered a championship-caliber performance to win the #18 Rated Youth division at the 2025 Cinch RSNC World Finals, held in June at the Will Rogers Memorial Center. The dynamic duo sorted 25 head of cattle in 158.01 seconds over three rounds, besting a robust field of youth teams and earning $4,694 and a pair of World Champion buckles from Professional’s Choice.
Strategy Under Pressure
Clark, of Palm City, Florida, and O’Neil, from Hockley, Texas, comprised a #9 rated team, showing strategy and grit throughout the event—a hallmark of high-level ranch sorting, especially in an all-levels youth class that mirrors the intensity of adult competition.
In an interview with EQN Sports following the win, Clark, who turned 18 just days after the conclusion of the World Finals, shared the pair’s deliberate strategy as they navigated their way through three pressure-packed rounds.
“Round 1, we were really just trying to get 10 head,” Clark said. “We just wanted to make sure we got back, and that was the plan. And the second go, we were just trying to set our cows up, get six or seven head and make it back to the short go. And we ended up getting nine. So that worked out well; we were just trying to stay alive and make it back.”…