MARTIN, TN – The Northwest Mississippi Community College rodeo team had limited success over the weekend at the UT Martin College Rodeo, but the men's team was still able to pick up 120 team points with several individuals still putting together solid runs to qualify for the short go.
Dakota Smith continues to lead the charge for the Northwest men's team, finishing in second in the average and clinching his spot in the College National Finals Rodeo in Casper Wyoming with 100 more points on his region total.
His score of 81 was the second best of the long go and he was only joined coming back by Jace Hensley of Missouri Valley College who currently leads the region. Neither rider was able to stay on for the full eight seconds on their second ride, and the 83.5 from Hensley was just enough to edge out Smith for the title.
Team roping was by far the best event for the Rangers in terms of bringing back athletes to the short go, with three teams featuring at least one NWCC competitor making a return trip for Saturday nights performance.
The top time from the opening round went to the team of Leo Williams and Eli Herman with a run of 7.3 seconds to catch their steer. They wouldn't complete their catch in the short go, but with only five successful runs, it was still enough for the duo to pick up 70 points in the region standings.
The duo of Hank Burgess and Tate Williams also made it back, although they were outside of the points from the first go, they made their second run count, catching their steer with a time of 16.8 and picking up the fifth spot in the short go.
As one of only five teams with two catches, that netted them a fifth-place finish in the average and 40 points for the rodeo with an overall time of 28.9.
Trey Lee Weekley and his partner Austin Brooks from the University of West Alabama also made it back, picking up 10 points in a run of 10.4 from the long go, but they also failed to get a clean catch on their short go steer and finished with just ten points in the rodeo.
There was plenty of hope for the Rangers going into the calf roping short go after Hank Burgess got out to the third fastest time in the opening round. His time of 10.7 was less than a second off the top time and netted him 40 points in the region standings.
Unfortunately for the third-year competitor from Dalton, Georgia, his second go saw him just miss catching his calf and he couldn't net any more points in the rodeo and he finished outside of the top six in the average.
Going into the final two rodeos, the Rangers have several athletes who still have a chance at joining Smith in Casper for the finals which begin on June 14th and go through the 20th.
Williams is just 180 points out of third in the Ozark standings in calf roping and with 180 points available at each event, he still has an outside chance of making a push, but would need a big weekend at the Arkansas Tech Rodeo this weekend to set up an opportunity at the Ranger Rodeo on April 23rd through the 25th.
The team roping duo of Tucker Douglas and Cole McCorkle are also in the hunt in one of the more open events, entering the weekend just 165 points out of third with both in the top ten for headers and heelers.
Barrel racing also has a Ranger in the hunt with Raegan Chance sitting in eleventh place in a wide-open field. The top spot is all but locked down, but Chance is only 125 points out of third and just 150 points out of second, so a pair of good runs for the freshman could get her to the CNFR as well.
Keep up with all of the rodeo events and news by following along on nwccrangers.com or by checking out Northwest social media accounts.
