The Eastern New Mexico rodeo program hit the arena for the first time in a month this weekend at the Ranger College Rodeo and saw the women’s side put together it’s best performance of the year.
Four Greyhounds made it back to Saturday night’s short go for the women’s team, three of which served as point scorers, resulting in a sixth place finish with 102 total points. Tarleton State took home team honors on the women’s side with 310 total points, while Eastern New Mexico stood as one of six teams that scored 100 or more points for the rodeo.
Despite strong showings in the long round by multiple athletes, no Greyhounds made it back to the short go on the men’s side.
Junior Saige Bell secured the highest total of points of any of the four cowgirls that qualified for the short go in their respective events after posting a time of 7.4 in the short go and placing fourth in the goat tying event. That performance jumped Bell up to fourth place in the average after a time of 7.9 in the first round and secured 70 total points for the Hounds.
Breakaway roper Molly Griffin qualified for yet another short go in with a time of 2.1 seconds in the first round, splitting fourth, fifth and sixth place. That time was good enough to earn 12 points for the team score, while Griffin’s time of 2.8 on Saturday night was .2 seconds away from being good enough to score additional points for the Greyhounds. She finished the rodeo in eighth place in the average with a total time of 4.9 seconds.
Freshman Karli Cowie served as the third and final Greyhound to secure the team points, scoring 20 points for the team with a fifth place finish in the first round of the barrel racing event following a time of 14.88. Cowie followed up that time on Saturday night with a mark of 15.14 in the short go to finish seventh in the average for the rodeo.
Sophomore Timber Kelly also qualified for the short go in the goat tying, tying three other competitors with a time of 7.6 seconds in the first round to split second, third, fourth and fifth place. Kelly posted a time of 11.4 seconds on Saturday night to place eighth in the round and eighth in the average with a total time of 19.0.
The Eastern New Mexico rodeo program will get the final stretch of it’s 2019 spring schedule started on April 4-6 at the Western Texas College Rodeo in Snyder, Texas.
