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ENMU arrow Athletics arrow News arrow Press Releases arrow 2002 Archive arrow10/16 Greyhounds Take 1st at Vernon College Rodeo
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Greyhounds Take 1st at Vernon College Rodeo
Gililland Wins Team Roping, Higgins First in Bull Riding

VERNON, TX – The Eastern New Mexico University men’s rodeo team won the team title at the Vernon College Rodeo, Oct. 10-12 in Vernon, Texas. The Greyhounds were led by James Gililland (So., Tularosa, NM), who won team roping with partner Josh Morris of West Texas A&M University, and by Dusty Higgins (So., Roswell, NM), who took first place in bull riding.

ENMU accumulated 285 points in taking first place. West Texas A&M finished second with 210 points. Western Texas College followed in third with 190 points, while fourth place went to Tarleton State University with 117 points. Behind TSU was Odessa College in fifth place with 113 points. Vernon College claimed sixth place with a score of 105, and was followed by South Plains College (15 points), Weatherford College (5 points) and Texas Tech University (2.5 points).

Gililland and Morris recording the fastest team roping times in both the long go, at 5.2 seconds, and the short go, at 5.6 seconds. They earned a combined time of 10.8 seconds, to win the event by nearly three seconds over Colby Schneeman of TSU and Andy Paul Jones of Frank Phillips College, who achieved an overall time of 13.7 seconds.

Higgins scored a 79 in the long go of bull riding, then earned an 84 in the short go. His total score of 163 gave him a five-point victory over Dustin Domangue of Odessa College, who scored 158 overall (77 - 81). Higgins’ 84 in the finals was the best score of the rodeo.
Chance Parsons of the ENMU (Fr., Monte Vista, CO) took second place in steer wrestling. Parsons, also participating as a redshirt in football, recorded a time of 3.9 seconds in the long go and entered the short go tied for first place. He scored a 5.3 in the short go to win the event with an impressive total of 9.2 seconds. He was edged out by Colt Looper of Vernon College, who finished at 8.1 seconds (4.0 - 4.1).

Parsons finished ahead of Looper in the long go, but Looper scored a 4.1 in the short go to make take the lead. With points earned at Vernon College, Parsons has a commanding lead for first place in the Southwest Region in steer wrestling.

Jordan Ward, took third place in calf roping for Eastern, clocking in at 9.1 seconds in the long go, and 10.4 seconds in the short go, to earn a total time of 19.5 seconds. Calf roping was won by Michael Otero from Odessa College, who recorded 8.0 seconds in the long go and 9.5 seconds in the short go, for a combined time of 17.5 seconds to outdistance the competition by 1.6 seconds. Cade Swor of Vernon College was second at 19.1 seconds overall.

Jeff Cavey (Jr., Odessa, TX), another ENMU cowboy, tied for fourth place in saddle bronc riding. He scored 62 in the long go and 72 in the short go, and earned a combined score of 134 points. J.W. Todd of West Texas A&M won the event by riding a 69 in the long go and an 83 in the short go for 152 points.

Austin Griffith of Tarleton State University won the bareback riding, with an overall score of 145 points. Griffith registered 75 points in the long go and 70 points in the short go.
ENMU placed three cowgirls in the finals. Johnna Garcia (Jr., Clayton, NM) and Kristin Gendron (Jr., Templeton, CA) competed for the Zias in the short go in barrel racing, while Saranda McGuire (So., Albuquerque, NM) advanced to the short go in break-away roping.
Gendron placed seventh overall in barrel racing with an overall time of 35.63 seconds. She ran a time of 17.75 seconds in the long go and a time of 17.88 seconds in the short go. Garcia earned a time of 17.73 seconds in the long go and clocked in at 17.96 seconds in the short go, for a total time of 35.69 seconds to place eighth. McGuire earned a time of 2.8 seconds to tie for third in the long go of break-away roping, but failed to record a time in the short go.

Barrel racing was won by Skye Holman of Tarleton State, who finished the long go in 17.20 seconds and also completed the short go in 17.20 seconds (34.40 seconds overall). First place in break-away roping went to Stephanie Smith of South Plains, who earned a time of 3.1 seconds in the long go and finished her run in 2.6 seconds in the short go (5.7 seconds overall).

The Zias failed to score any team points. Tarleton State won the rodeo with 220 points. Second place went to Vernon College with 165 team points. New Mexico Junior College claimed third place by tallying 80 points. Texas Tech and Western Texas College both scored 30 points to tie for third place. There were no other points scored in the women’s team competition.

Swor was named All-Around Cowboy, after making the short go in calf roping and steer wrestling. In addition to placing second in calf roping, Swor was fourth in steer wrestling with an overall tie of 12.2 seconds (6.5 - 5.7). Holman was the All-Around Cowgirl after winning barrel racing and goat tying .

The Greyhounds and Zias will return to action Oct. 24-26 at the rodeo hosted by Texas Tech in Lubbock, Texas. It will be the last rodeo of the semester for the Hounds and Zias, as they attempt to earn points toward qualifying for the College National Finals Rodeo in May, 2003.

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