Tarleton rodeo teams dominate Southwest Region standings

STEPHENVILLE, TEXAS-The Tarleton State University rodeo teams recently traveled to Vernon College to participate in the fourth Southwest Region college rodeo of the semester.

Twenty-four students made the short round, with the women winning the team championship for the weekend and the men placing fourth. The men are currently leading the team standings, and the women are second behind South Plains College.

The Oklahoma twins, Kylie and Cassie Ward, had a phenomenal weekend. The two girls collected all 400 points for the women’s team. They transferred to Tarleton this semester from Vernon College after getting their associate degrees last spring. They ended up second and third for the all-around standing for the weekend, and won first in the barrel racing and second in the goat tying. Kylie won the first round of the barrels with her time of 16.79 seconds, and Cassie placed third with a time of 17.24 seconds. In the short round, Kylie posted a time of 16.98, which was good enough for second in the round and the average win. Unfortunately, Cassie knocked barrels in the short round taking her out of the average. Kylie also picked up points for splitting first through fourth in the long round of the breakaway roping. Cassie picked up second in the goat tying, after winning first in the long round and third in the short round.

Another barrel racer, Fran Surles, also had a good weekend. She won second in the long round, split third in the short round and ended up third in the average. Surles collected 120 points and moved up to fifth in the overall standings for the region. Tarleton has five cowgirls in the top eight of the Southwest barrel standings.

Freshman Chase Williams tied the fastest time of the rodeo with his lightning fast run of 7.6 seconds in the short round, which gave him the win of the round and the average. Williams collected 120 points and moved into the top eight of the standings. He and brother, Chad, are also in the top five of the team roping standings. Miles Aston placed third in the short round and third in the average, which moved him into the top 10 in the overall standings. Cole Fincher split third in the long round, but a broken barrier in the short round took him out of the average. KC Curtis collected 70 points by placing in the tiedown roping and steer wrestling.

Ryan Taylor picked up 105 in the steer wrestling. Taylor split fourth in the long round and placed third in the short round and the average. Taylor is currently in the top 10 for the steer wrestling standings.

Tarleton team ropers Clay Norell and Nick Rawlings moved into the top five of the heading standings after this weekend’s win. Norell and partner JW Townsend (Howard College) won fifth in the long round. Their second place finish in the short round also gave them second in the average. Rawlings and partner Jake Cobb (Weatherford College) won third in the short round and fourth in the average.

Once again, Harve Stewart won the bull riding. Stewart has won three of the first four rodeos and placed second at the other. He is riding great and beating the second-place holder by 380 points.

Isaac Diaz, a saddle bronc rider and 2009 National Finals qualifier, picked up 60 more points with his first round win. Tate Owen still leads the event with 390 points. Justin Bell picked up 60 points for the weekend with his third-place finish in the long round and fifth place in the average.

Other team members making the short round included Lillian McMullan, Kiel Rowan, Chad Williams, Cody Anthony, Justin Oliver, Blake Fontenot and Jared Bilby.

The team will travel to Texas Tech University Oct. 15-17 for the last rodeo of the semester. For more information on the Tarleton rodeo teams visit www.tarleton.edu/~rodeo. Team and individual standings can also be found at www.collegerodeo.com.