Wrangler ProRodeo Championship has a bit of everything
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – A world record, a regular season earnings record, a lead change in the Crusher Rentals PRCA World Standings and a couple of lineup changes for the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo. The Nov. 7-9 Wrangler ProRodeo Tour Championship, presented by the Texas Stampede, had plenty of drama.
And team roping always seemed to be at the heart of things. Best friends and partners since junior rodeo days, Colter Todd and Cesar de la Cruz lived out a long-held fantasy on Sunday when they tied the ProRodeo record with a 3.5 second run in the semifinal round at the American Airlines Center, joining Blaine Linaweaver/Jory Levy (2001) and Clay Tryan/Patrick Smith (2005) in the record book.
The Arizona pair, shut out of the money until finals Sunday, then came back to capture the final with a 5.2 run to edge JoJo LeMond and Martin Lucero for the $10,313 purse, Crystal Cups and a buckle from Montana Silversmiths.
Over the first two days of the rodeo, the team roping was dominated by the temp team of Speed Williams and Michael Jones. They won the first two rounds and the average, allowing Jones to move past Randon Adams into first place in the team roping heeler standings with $110,483. He missed breaking Rich Skelton's eight-year old record for regular-season earnings by just $143.
Header Turtle Powell, of Alpine, Texas, wasted no time working his way into the Wrangler NFR field. He finished third on Friday night and that was enough to bump Keven Daniel out of Las Vegas and Powell climbed all the way to 11th by the end of the weekend.
An even more dramatic - and unlikely - breakthrough was made by bull rider Shawn Proctor of Toole, Utah. He entered the Tour Championship 22nd in the world standings, with two other Dallas competitors between him and the final WNFR berth.
Proctor was second in the first round and tied for first with J.W. Harris in the second round to finish second in the average, then won the semfinal round. It left him with an event-best $17,402 to vault all the way to 11th place, bumping 2007 Wrangler NFR veteran Marcus Michaelis in the process.
Rookie Stormy Wing and Howdy Cloud also had a shot at making the big stage in Las Vegas right up until they were both bucked off their bulls in the semifinal round. Wing came within a half-second of completing his ride, a half-second from making the WNFR.
Canadian Lindsay Sears, who passed up her national championships in Edmonton, Alberta, Nov. 5-9 to push her world championship bid, helped herself a great deal. By winning both the semifinal and final rounds on Sunday, Sears broke the regular-season earnings record set a year ago by Brittany Pozzi-Pharr. Sears will enter Las Vegas with $184,567.
The fan favorite in the American Airlines Center was saddle bronc rider Billy Etbauer who barely made it into the final round as the fourth and final qualifier, then produced a winning 86-point ride on Powder River Rodeo's Touch of Silver. It was his first win at Dallas, but, more to the point put him less than $5,000 behind leader Cody Wright entering the WNFR, in reach of a record-tying sixth world championship.
Despite an injury which had kept him on the sidelines for three weeks before the Tour Championship, tie-down roper Hunter Herrin, of Apache, Okla., had an event-best 7.0-second run in the final to move himself ahead of Trevor Brazile and Mike Johnson into second place in the world standings.
A pair of 2006 world champions won the remaining titles. Steer wrestler Dean Gorsuch, of Gering, Neb., tied with best friend and reigning world champion Jason Miller for the best time in the finals of 3.6 seconds, but Gorsuch was declared the winner on the basis of having the faster time in the semifinals. B.J. Schumacher of Hillsboro, Wis., had a 91 point ride on Silverado Rodeo's Cowboy to claim the bull riding title.
A year of change at the Canadian Finals Rodeo
EDMONTON - This was a year of change at the Canadian Finals Rodeo with seven new champions being crowned after the sixth performance on Nov. 9 -- three of them Americans.
Dickinson, N.D. native Dusty Hausauer won the saddle bronc riding championship, earning $19,238 at the CFR to push his season earnings to $63,394, more than $6,000 better than runner-up Dustin Flundra. Just as they had done in 2006, South Dakota barrel racer Lisa Lockhart and Washington tie-down roper Tyson Durfey collected trophies.
"I guess I'm just following his footsteps or something," Lockhart told the Edmonton Journal.
Kyle Bowers of Brooks, Alberta won the bareback riding, Tyler Thomson of Black Diamond, Alberta, the bull riding and Saskatchewan's Murray Linthicum and another Brooks cowboy, Dwight Wigemyr, won the team roping. Cody Cassidy had previously clinched the steer wrestling championship.
Steven Turner won the All-Around for the third time in the last six years; Curtis Cassidy got the High-Point award for the fifth time.
For pure dramatic impact nobody could touch Bowers, who has struggled with a series of injuries including damage to his groin muscle, a partially torn hamstring and a pelvic misalignment that have baffled doctors for months.
"I heard too many people say 'Watch this ride; it might be Kyle Bowers' last ride ever,' " Bowers told the Journal. "The only thing doctors told me was that they could put a plate in, and (I would) never get on another bareback horse again. I wasn't going to do that."
To claim his first Canadian championship since 2003, Bowers had to rise to the occasion on Nov. 9. After three-time Canadian champion Davey Shields Jr. posted an 85, Bowers knew exactly what he had to do: "I said 'OK, I have to win this round to win the Canadian Championship.' One horse. One day to win the whole year. No pressure."
Bowers rode Kesler's Street Dance for 88 points.
Durfey took a slightly less direct path to his second Canadian title.
Two years ago, Durfey got his calf roped and tied in an out-of-the-money 8.3 seconds. But the three guys in front of him did worse. Cliff Williamson made an illegal figure-eight catch; Chad Johnson missed completely and Steve Lloyd's calf kicked free.
This time, Durfey came in trailing another American, Idaho's Matt Shiozawa, and just barely ahead of Canadian Steve Lloyd. But Shiozawa was flagged for breaking the barrier while Lloyd's calf again kicked free.
"A bit of a fluke," said Durfey, whose 10.3-second final-round time was good enough. "I ended up getting a little luckier."
Lockhart had a 15.05-second run to win the final round of the barrel racing and the average.
"It came down to (Sunday)," said Lockhart. "I think I had to win the round. So many girls were in position to take that championship
Nonella captures all-around title at Brawley Cattle Call Rodeo
Former Oregon state high school all-around champion Roger Nonella is starting to make his presence felt in the professional ranks.
Nonella, 22, won the tie down roping at the Nov. 8-9 Brawley (Calif.) Cattle Call Rodeo and placed in the steer wrestling to also capture the all-around championship over Ben Londo by $222.
A 8.7 second run in the tie-down roping by Nonella was three-tenths of a second faster than second place J. Cody Jones with three-time Wrangler National Finals Rodeo qualifier Houston Hutto third in 9.5 seconds. Nonella, of Klamath Falls, Ore., was sixth in the steer wrestling.
Londo, the son of four time NFR qualifier Ned Londo, won the bareback riding title with an 84 point ride on Rosser Rodeo's Kattle Klare, edging Paul Jones and Caleb Bennett by two points, and finished the saddle bronc riding competition in a tie for seventh place.
There were close battles everywhere you looked at Brawley with three events ending in a tie. Blake Doyle and Ethan Thouvenell shared the steer wrestling title with a time of 5.4 seconds. The bull riding saw Ardie Maier and Jacob Tyner lead the field with identical 82-point rides.
And the saddle bronc riding? Jake Larson and Levi Berry tied for first with scores of 82 points. There was also a tie for third, fifth and seven place.
The only decisive result was to come in the team roping where Waylon McCurley and Joseph Shawnego won in 5.4 seconds, beating second place Travis Bard and Danny Necochea by seven-tenths of a second.
Upcoming PRCA Rodeos
Nov. 13 Dodge Great Lakes Circuit Finals Rodeo, Louisville, Ky., begins
Nov. 14 Dodge California Circuit Finals Rodeo, Norco, Calif., begins
Nov. 14 Dodge Columbia River Circuit Finals Rodeo, Redmond, Ore. begins4. Next Up
Nov. 14 2008 National Finals Steer Roping, Hobbs, N.M
