Saturday, May 24, 2008

Dearing shines as rodeo points are totaled up for state

N.M. finals in Carlsbad are now less than two weeks away

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

Not all of Valencia County's competitors at the New Mexico High School Rodeo Association's event May 10-11 were successful in every event they participated in, but many have at least some momentum going into next month's state finals.

With the next event being the state finals, set for June 4-7 in Carlsbad, competitors in the May 10-11 rodeo knew they were in the final weekend of regular competition to earn points and move up in the standings, overall and in each event.

Among Valencia County cowboys who went to Roswell, Brock Dearing was the big winner. He posted times of 11.16 seconds and 9.57 seconds to win the calf roping average competition.

Dearing, a Los Lunas High School senior who recently signed a letter of intent to attend Eastern New Mexico University on a rodeo scholarship, also placed in the second go of team roping in Roswell. He teamed with TiAda Gray of Lovington to place eighth in the second go.

More importantly, Dearing is now in fifth place in the state in calf roping season points with 72, and he's 13th on the All-Around Cowboy chase with 92.

The top four scorers in each event at state advance to nationals in July.

The man Dearing and so many other New Mexico cowboys are chasing in several categories is his Young Guns Rodeo Club teammate, Seth Hall.

Leading in steer wrestling, calf roping and All-Around Cowboy season points, Hall seems to be the odds-on favorite to win the All-Around title at the state finals. His lead in steer wrestling is slim at 153-143 over Clay Elkins, but his lead in the all-around standings is by more than 100 points.

Hall only recorded a team roping time at Roswell, joining with Jake Matthews for an impressive mark of 4.73 seconds in the second go. Hall is in eighth place in the team roping season points with 67.

Ryan Cook of Los Chavez is tied with his partner JC Archuleta in team roping near the top of that event's points standings. Cook and Archuleta placed third in the second go at Roswell with a time of 7.26 seconds.

On the girls side, Payton Cowdrey had one of her better outings of the season in Roswell. She had the fourth-fastest time in the second run of the breakaway roping event, and had the second-fastest time in the first go of goat tying.

Cowdrey went on to place seventh in the second go in goat tying, and she's in sixth place in the season standings in goat tying, 15th in the breakaway, 16th in pole bending and 18th in the All-Around Cowgirl competition.

The all-around list is headed by Kaity Ray of Los Lunas, although her lead over Jessie Suazo is narrow, 291-285. Ray had a second-place go in the breakaway at Roswell to go with seventh-place runs in goat tying and pole bending, and she's at or near the top in many categories.

Ray is the all-around and breakaway leader, and she's second in goat tying and third in barrel racing.

Shiann Irwin is in ninth place in the all-around standings. The Bosque Farms resident placed second in the first breakaway go at Roswell, and finished one spot ahead of Ray in the first go of pole bending. Irwin, an LLHS senior who was the fifth-fastest in the second go of the poles, is fifth in pole bending in the state and seventh in the barrels.

Tori Codgill and Cathy Long also are ranked on the barrel-racing points list. All of the regular high school rodeo competitors from Valencia County are members of the Young Guns except for Ray.

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