A Tonganoxie Middle School student is currently competing among some of the top junior rodeo stars the nation has to offer.

Cooper Phillips, an incoming eighth-grader at TMS, is in Des Moines, Iowa, for the 10th annual National Junior High Finals Rodeo competition. Phillips is competing in four events as a member of the Missouri team at the world’s largest junior high rodeo event, which began Sunday and concludes Saturday.

The 2014 boys all-around champion in Missouri, Phillips competed at 20 state qualifying rodeos this year, winning championships in team roping with Kaitlyn Adams of Jasper, Mo., and ribbon roping with Hanna Wheeler of Osceola, Mo. He also took second individually in chute dogging and fourth in breakaway roping.

The top four contestants in each event qualified for this week’s NJHFR finals.