Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Rodeo stars shine at Lovington competition

Jason W. Brooks News-Bulletin Staff Writer; jbrooks@news-bulletin.com

Several Valencia County cowboys and cowgirls competed at a high school rodeo in Lovington over the weekend, and their efforts helped shore up their spots in season events standings in New Mexico High School Rodeo.

Seth Hall had the lowest time in both goes of the steer wrestling competition, and had the best overall average. He was also third in the first go of calf roping.

Hall also teamed with Jake Matthews to place 10th in the second go of team roping.

Ryan Cook and his team-roping partner, J.C. Archuleta, took first place in the first go of their event.

On the girls side, Kaity Ray had a strong performance in the first go of three events. She was first in breakaway roping and second in both goat tying and barrel racing on the first go of each event.

Cathy Long was seventh in the first go of barrel racing, but improved to fourth on her second turn. Tori Codgill was sixth in the first go of the breakaway, sixth in the second go of goat tying, and ninth in the second go of barrel racing.

Cogdill lives in Albuquerque but is a member of the Valencia County Rodeo Club, as are many high school competitors from the area.

Shiann Irwin was ninth in the second go of goat tying and sixth on the first go of pole bending.

In the individual events standings for the season, Hall was the leader going into the Lovington event in steer wrestling and calf roping. Cook and Archuleta were tied for sixth in team roping points.

Ray was the leader in the breakaway and was second in barrel racing and goat tying. Irwin was sixth in barrel racing and seventh in pole bending.

Both of the all-around points leaders for New Mexico are from Valencia County, as of the end of the March 15-16 rodeo in Farmington. Hall led the boys points standings with 200, while Ray is at the top of the girls points list with 157.

Brock Dearing was 16th for the boys, while Irwin is eighth and Payton Cowdrey was 22nd.

The Valencia County club, known as the "Young Guns," will take a week off before hosting its own rodeo the weekend of April 4-6 in Los Lunas. Cutting will be on Friday, April 4 at 5 p.m.; the main rodeo will start at 9 a.m. both Saturday and Sunday, April 5 and 6. A dance is slated for 8:30 p.m. Saturday.

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