Rodeo 2/24/2020 10:38:00 AM Ryan Shumaker
McLeod and Bell Shine as Rodeo Gets Spring Schedule Started
The Eastern New Mexico rodeo team kicked off the 2020 spring portion of their schedule at the Odessa College Rodeo in Odessa, Texas this weekend.
The men’s team finished in fifth place thanks to all-around champion Tee McLeod, who placed in both the steer wresting as well as the team roping to secure all 245 points for the Hounds. The women’s team also recorded a top-five finish with a fourth place finish as senior Saige Bell finished second in the goat tying to record all 100 points for the women’s team.
Two other Greyhounds also made it back to Saturday night’s short round in barrel racer Trinity Kizer and breakaway roper Lauren Hopkins, who made it back in their respective events, but were not included on the points team for the weekend. Kizer and Hopkins were able to make it back to the championship round despite 147 entered breakaway participants and 120 barrel racers in the spring’s first rodeo for the Southwestern Region.
McLeod and Bell figure to both be in the mix at semester’s end for a spot among the top participants in the region and each got their semester’s off to a solid start. McLeod qualified for the short round with a time of 4.9 in the steer wrestling and then shot up the average leaderboard with a victory in Saturday night’s championship round with a time of 4.0 seconds.
That outstanding run gave him an average time of 8.9 seconds in the event and secured a total of 105.0 points towards his all-around performance. He teamed up with Stefan Ramone of South Plains Junior College to win the long round in the team roping with a time of 5.2 seconds and then finished off the weekend with a time of 10.9 seconds on Saturday night to finish third in the average with a time of 16.1 seconds.
That third place finish in the average along with a top-three finish in each round in the team roping earned McLeod 140 more points and secured the all-around crown for the weekend.
Bell qualified back for the short go with a mark of 7.5 seconds in the first round in the goat tying and then also provided a stellar run on Saturday night with a time of 7.2 seconds to finish in second place in the championship round. That run moved Bell up to second place in the average standings with a total time of 14.7 for the weekend, good enough for 100 points.
Kizer and Hopkins each showed that the talent pool for head coach Albert Flinn will run deep this spring semester as they both finished in the top six of their respective events for the weekend in very competitive events. Kizer qualified back for the short round in the barrel racing with a time of 14.62 seconds in a round in which all times good enough to qualify for the championship round were separated by just .42 of a second.
Kizer capitalized on the opportunity and ran a time of 16.16 seconds in the short go to finish with an average time of 30.78 and a sixth place finish in the event. Hopkins made a similar move during her championship round run on Saturday night, serving as one of just five cowgirls to record a time in the breakaway roping on Saturday night.
That run of 12.3 seconds on Saturday night combined with a time of 2.8 seconds in her first round run allowed Hopkins to finish in fifth place for the event with a total time of 15.1 seconds.
Both teams will have some time off to make adjustments and prepare for a busy stretch of schedule beginning on Mar. 26-28 in Ranger, Texas at the Ranger College Rodeo.
