LIVINGSTON, Ala. – The Northwest rodeo team competed at the University of West Alabama Sept. 27-29 in the third event of the NIRA fall season, fighting through tough conditions from rain during the week.
The men's team finished in a tie for sixth out of 10 teams with a season-high 100 points, while the women did not place.
"I feel like our team would have done better in this past weekend's competition with better arena conditions," head coach
Shelli Benton said. "Because of the mud and slick conditions, many of our barrel racers didn't push their horses as hard in fear they would slip in the mud. Conditions were definitely better by Friday evening and into Saturday evening."
In the Thursday evening competition,
Marshall Merchant was up in the bareback competition and walked away with a 64-point ride that tied him for first place. He was bucked off his horse on Friday, however, which put him tied for 3rd and 4th place for his first round and 4th and 5th in the average.
Austin Davis and
Klarissa Neff were up first for team roping. They had a little bad luck with only catching one horn of the steer. Out second was brothers, Brennan and
Brandon Tomlinson. They had a catch with a time of 8.8 plus a 5-second penalty with only one back-leg catch.
Cooper Parks and
Caleb Swords were out in bull riding also Thursday evening. Cooper fell just shy of the 8.0 seconds so both came out of bull riding with a no time.
Neff was out in breakaway roping during slack Thursday evening. She had a little bad luck with a no-time.
Cade Cowan and his partner from UTM, Clay Tilley, were tagged with penalties breaking the barrier and catching only one leg. Therefore, the added 15 seconds worth of penalties knocked them out of the chance for the short-go.
We had four competitors in the barrel racing competition on Friday.
Hope Collins ran a 18.24 with a clean run,
Allison Cratin ran a 18.96,
Makayla Jordan ran a 18.05 and
Mallory Williamson had a time of 17.21. With the bad arena dirt conditions after the rain none of barrel racers qualified for the short-go on Saturday.
Friday evening, Parks and Swords were up to compete in bull riding for their second round of bulls. Parks covered his bull going the full 8.0 seconds and bringing a score of 68 points. That put him in 3rd place for the second round, bringing home team points.
"We are working hard this week and next during practice to get ready for competition at Three Rivers Community College right after fall break," Benton added.
