Bennett and Gardner Place Second for ENMU at College Daze Rodeo
Zias Finish Fourth, Greyhounds 10th in Team Standings

PORTALES, N.M. — Sophomore Brittany Bennett (Portales, NM/Dora HS) took second place in barrel racing and freshman Raelyn Gardner (Lovington, NM/Lovington HS) earned second place in goat tying to lead the Eastern New Mexico University women’s rodeo team to a fourth place finish in the team standings, at the College Daze Rodeo, hosted by ENMU at Lewis Cooper Arena, Sept. 16-18. The ENMU men’s rodeo team placed 10th in the team standings.

The College Daze Rodeo opened the 2004-05 rodeo season for the Southwest Region of the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association (NIRA). ENMU and other teams in the Southwest Region will compete in a total of 10 rodeos — four in the fall and six in the spring.

Bennett registered the third fastest time of the long go at 17.81 seconds. She added the best time of the short go, 17.77 seconds, to finish just two-hundredths of a second behind the winner, Holly Brooks of New Mexico Junior College (17.48 - 18.08). Brooks’ winning overall time was 35.56 seconds, with Bennett at 35.58 seconds and J.J. Thompson of Texas Tech University in third at 35.61 seconds (17.80 - 17.81).

Gardner was seeded fifth heading into the short go in goat tying, after recording a time of 7.6 seconds in the long go. She recorded the second fastest time of the short go at 7.2 seconds and concluded the event with a combined time of 14.8 seconds. Tessie McMullen of Tarleton State University won the event with a 6.5 in the preliminary round and a 7.1 in the finals for a combined total of 13.6 seconds. Third place went to Kallen Hayes of TSU at 15.4 seconds (7.4 - 8.0).

The remaining women’s event, break-away roping, was won by Sammie Blake of Tarrant
County Community College. Blake clocked in at 2.6 seconds in the long go and led all finalists with a time of 3.0 seconds in the short go. Her overall time of 5.6 seconds was one-half second faster than Jackie Hobbs of Tarleton State, who took second at 6.1 seconds. Cigi Allen from the College of the Southwest led the long go at 2.2 seconds and repeated her time in the short go, but had a broken barrier and ended at 14.4 seconds following a 10-second penalty.

Overall, the ENMU women’s rodeo team placed four athletes in the short go. In addition to Gardner in goat tying and Bennett in barrel racing, the Zias also advanced Kelcey Foreman in goat tying (7.7 - DNS) and Tonya Bixler in break-away roping (2.9 - 4.1 -- 7.0).

Tarleton State won the women’s team title with 195 points. New Mexico Junior College was second at 130 points, with Texas Tech third at 80 points. ENMU was fourth with 75 points, West Texas A&M University took fifth with 50 points, College of the Southwest was sixth at 40 points, and Sul Ross State University and Vernon College tied for seventh with 10 points each.

In the men’s division, West Texas A&M won the rodeo with 210 points. Texas Tech claimed second place with 200 points and Western Texas College was third with 195 points. Vernon College took fourth at 150, Tarleton State was fifth at 115, Weatherford College was sixth at 105, Sul Ross State was seventh with 100 points, Frank Phillips College was eight with 80 points, Odessa College took ninth at 75, ENMU was 10th with 15 points and Howard College was 11th with 10 points.

Brandon Beers and Kyle Crick of Weatherford College tied Clayton Jackson and Quint
Andrews of Tarleton State for first place in team roping with an overall time of 11.7 seconds.

Jackson and Andrews led the field at 5.3 seconds in the long go, but Beers and Crick made up six-tenths of a second in the short go (5.8 seconds compared to 6.4 seconds).
Other individual champions in the men’s events were Cimmaron Gerke of Sul Ross State in bareback riding, Wes Burns of West Texas A&M in saddle bronc riding, Brent Walden of Howard College in tie-down roping, Cooper Kannglesser of Vernon College in bull riding and Hunter Cure from Texas Tech in steer wrestling.

Gerke achieved a combined score in bareback riding of 155 points (75 - 80). Burns recorded an overall score of 147 (73 - 74) in saddle bronc riding. Walden earned an overall time of 18.5 seconds in tie-down roping (8.5 - 10.0). Kannglesser led bull riding with a score of 154, including an 84 in the short go for the highest score of the event. Cure provided the second-fastest time in the short go (4.4) and the long go (4.3) for an overall time of 8.7 seconds in steer wrestling.

Eastern’s only points in the men’s division were scored by Stetson Herrera in bareback riding. He tied for third in the long go with a score of 73 points, but did not record a score in the short go. Herrera also reached the short go in bull riding with a preliminary score of 65, but did not score in the short go.

Other finalists from the ENMU men’s team were Royce Lynch and James Gililland in team roping (6.8 - 19.5 -- 26.3), Gililland and his second partner, Kyle Roberts of New Mexico J.C., in team roping (6.2 - DNS), Chance Pettigrew in steer wrestling (6.2 - DNS), Brad Good in tie-down roping (10.6 - 13.6 -- 24.2) and Jared Green in bull riding (62 - DNS).

ENMU’s next competition is set for Sept. 30-Oct. 2 at Sul Ross State. The Hounds and Zias also will attend rodeos at Vernon College (Oct. 7-9) and at Texas Tech (Nov. 18-20) this fall.