The Eastern New Mexico rodeo team wrapped up their fall semester of competition with their best outing of the year at the Texas Tech Rodeo this past weekend.
The Hounds finished in sixth place for the rodeo on the men’s side while the women’s team found themselves in eighth place at the conclusion of the weekend’s events. The performance put the exclamation point on a solid semester for the Eastern Rodeo program that saw multiple athletes reach the short round and also another huge success in hosting the ENMU “College Daze” rodeo that generated over 9,000 views on Yucca Television.
Eastern New Mexico had five athletes qualify for the short round this past weekend in Lubbock, Texas, with freshman Logan Hyatt taking second place in the average in the steer wrestling to lead the way for the men’s team that finished with 170 team points.
Hyatt qualified for Saturday night’s short round with a time of 4.8 seconds in the long round, placing him in fifth place. He then followed up that effort with a round-winning time of 4.5 in the short go that moved him up to second place in the average with a time of 9.3 seconds.
Hyatt and fellow freshman Stran Thompson served as the two point scorers for the men’s side with Thompson earning 40 points in the calf roping. Thompson finished fifth in the average after times of 9.8 and 10.6 in the long and short round respectively.
The women’s team had three individuals qualify for the short round including sophomore Timber Kelly, who put the lone 55 points on the board for the Hounds after splitting first and second place in the long round in the goat tying. Timber recorded a time of 14.9 in Saturday night’s short round to finish just outside of the average.
Senior Laney Elkins and sophomore Molly Griffin also made it back to the short round in their respective events as Elkins placed sixth in the long round in the barrel racing and Griffin split eighth and ninth in the breakaway roping with a time of 2.5. Neither athlete recorded a time fast enough during Saturday night’s short round to place in the average.
Eastern New Mexico will now take some time to reflect and prepare for the spring semester over the winter break before getting back out onto the circuit in the spring.
