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Weekly Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Thursday, July 1, 2004
Rec department registering kids for summer golf
The Reeves County Community Sports and Recreation Department is signing up children for its summer golf program between now and July 8.
The class is open to boys and girls between the ages of 5 and 14 and will be held two days a week for five weeks of July and August. Cost of the program will be $10 per child.
Registration forms are available during business hours at the recreation department office in the old Pecos High School gym. Both parents are required to sign the forms, and a birth certificate is also needed when returning the registration form to the office.
For further information, call the recreation department at 447-9776.
Slack time lasts long time on rodeo’s opening day
By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
Monday was a very long day for cowboys, judges and other event officials at the West of the Pecos Rodeo, as slack competition for the first go-round of the 2004 rodeo ended about 19 hours after it got underway. And some familiar names to local rodeo fans are among the early leaders in several events.
Slack began at 7:30 a.m. on Monday, and because of Tuesday night’s Professional Bull Riders competition, all of the first go-round and part of the second were compressed into one day, which didn’t come to an ended until 2:30 a.m. on Tuesday. Five hours later, slack continued at the Buck Jackson Arena, with the completion of the second go-round of steer roping and the start of the second go in the other PRCA timed events.
Second go-round in those events, along with the start of the third go-round in steer roping, were part of the opening night of the 2004 rodeo on Wednesday at the Buck Jackson Arena. Wednesday is also the opening night of competition for the PRCA bull riding competition, along with the bareback and saddle bronc riding and the ladies barrel racing events. The rodeo will continue Thursday through Saturday at the arena, with starting times each night of 7:30 p.m.
Through two go-rounds J.R. Olsen holds the lead in the steer roping. He won the first go with an 11.8 time, and while only tying for sixth in the second go, his combined 25.1 second times were good enough to put him in the lead overall, two-tenths of a second ahead of Buster Record, who tied for second in the first go round with a 12.8 time and took second outright in the second go with a 12.5 second effort.
Beau Byers won the second go with a 12.4 time, while Kenyon Burns, Rich Skelton and Will Gasperson all tied for third with 13.1 second time. Jay Sellers tied Record for second place in the first go round, while Scott Snedecor was fourth with a 13.2 time, Tee Woolman fifth with a 13.6 time, and four cowboys, including Skelton, were tied for sixth with 13.9 times.
Olson and Byars picked up $1,864 apiece for their wins. Olson has earned $2,390 so far, while Record took away $3,120 for his two second place finishes.
Skelton, who along with partner Speed Williams is a seven-time defending NFR champion in that event, didn’t fare as well there in the first go-round, failing to score a time. However, former seven time NFR champ Jake Barnes and his partner Allen Bach were among the early overall leaders. They placed third in the first go-round with a 7.3 second time and were in third in the second go as well, with a 7.4 time.
Steve Purcella and Britt Bockius won the first go-round with a 7 flat time and collected $1,933 apiece, while Tyler Mangus and Mickey Gomez were second with a 7.1 time, and earned $1,681. Jay and Random Adams were fourth with a 7.6 second time, while Matt Tyler and Kory Koontz and Daniel Green and Travis Woodard tied for fifth with 7.7 second times.
Tyler and Koontz are currently tied for first overall with Barnes and Bach. Their 7 flat time in the second go put them at 14.7 seconds overall. Current second go leaders are Joe Beaver and Mike Bacon, with a 6.1 second time, while Tanner Bryson and Travis Graves are fourth with a 7.6 time, Paul Mullin and Scott Selland are fifth at 7.8 seconds and Pat Boyle and Dennis Watkins are fifth with a 7.9 time.
Cash Myers is the only one of the top finishers in the first go of steer wrestling to be among the second-go leaders entering Wednesday’s opening night of the rodeo. He placed third in the first go with a 5.6 time and is fourth in the second go with a 6.1 effort.
Brad Loesch of Fort Worth and Colby Price of Aransas Pass tied for first in the first go round with 5.5 second times. Both took home $1,577, while Myers earned $1,247. Second go-round leader so far is Clint Shofner of Huntsville with a 4.9 second time. He’s followed by Brian Bauerle of Kyle with a 5.6 time and C.T. Fox of Keller, with a 6.1 time.
Jade Connor is the early overall leader in the calf roping competition. He tied for second in the first go-round with Terry Kitchens and Neal Felton at 9.6 seconds and currently is in fifth in the second go-round, with a 9.3 second time. Kyle Hughes won the first go with a 9.3 time and earned $2,818, while the other three cowboys pocketed $2,082 each.
John Driskull of Sabinal leads with a 9.0 time in the second go round, with Carter Edmonson second at 9.1 seconds and Trent Creager and Mike Johnson tied for third with 9.2 second times.
Final ride of night pays off big for Jackson
By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
Jim Sharp almost went from forgotten man to top finisher in the inaugural Professional Bull Riders competition in Pecos on Tuesday night, until the top scorer in the long go-round came up with an even better score on the final ride of the night at the Buck Jackson Rodeo Arena.
Sharp was almost left off the list of Top 10 finishers to compete in the final go-round of bull riding, and then barely stayed on for the required eight seconds when he opened the final go. The former Kermit resident was ruled to have just beaten the horn before getting tossed, and eight riders later, his 87 point score not only had held up, but Sharp was still the only rider to have lasted eight seconds on his bull.
That left only Jackson with a change to beat the score and take home the final go prize money, and the Greenwood, Miss., native was up to the task, staying the full eight seconds on board Ima Bad Cat and scoring 89 1/2 points to add the final round’s first prize to his winnings from the short go. Jackson ended up winning $5,355 overall for his two rides.
“I try not to pay attention to how many stayed on,” said Jackson, whose combined 178 score was 11 points higher than Sharp’s 167 score for his two rides. “The goal is to win first, and that’s what I wanted to do.
“I knew I had a good bull in the short go and just focused on getting ready. I knew if I stayed on I had enough of a lead on the other guy that everything would take care of itself,” Jackson said, and he remained under control on his ride for the full eight seconds.
“I hadn’t ever been on him before, but I had seen him several times,” he said of Ima Bad Cat, the last of the 10 bulls held back for the final go round.
Jackson wasn’t in any danger of missing the Top 10 list for the short-go - only 11 of the 50 riders in those five sections of bull riding managed to earn a score - but he wasn’t listed as the leader for a while on Tuesday. His first ride originally was announced as an 84 1/2 point score, but that was later corrected and his total was boosted to 88 1/2 points, seeding him first for the final-go round, ahead of Brazilian cowboy Fabricio Alvez, who totaled 87 points during one of the first rides of the night.
Sharp actually ended up taking three rides on Tuesday, scoring all three times. His 80 point total, which just got him into the finals, came on a re-ride awarded by judges when his bull lost its footing during a ride that would net him just 75 1/2 points. The former world’s champion ended up winning $2,975 for his two-ride average.
Most of the rides that did score came during the early portion of Tuesday’s show. Brandon Berry followed up Alvez’ 87 point ride during the first of five sections with an 86 point effort, while Adam Carrillo scored 81 and Craig Potter 82 points in the second section, just before Jackson’s 87 1/2 point ride. Gary Richards, Rodrigo Ferreira and Jesse Schellhamer would qualify in the third second with rides of 83 1/2, 81 1/2 and 80 points respectively, and Sharp closed out that second with his 80-point re-ride.
Jackson said he had recently placed well in the PBR Built Ford Tough event in Nashville, and was hoping to collect some more money riding in the regular PRCA competition on Wednesday night at the West of the Pecos Rodeo. From Pecos, Jackson planned a big loop of rodeos over the Fourth of July weekend, traveling to Prescott, Ariz., Park Ridge, Minn., and Springdale, Ark., before returning to West Texas this weekend to compete at the Brady rodeo.
“It’s been a blessed week so far, and it’s only started,” he said.
The PBR bull riding was the only event held on Tuesday. In past years, an added section of the PRCA bull riding had been staged on Tuesdays, before the start of the regular rodeo. Other timed events, such as steer roping and steer wrestling, had been part of the Tuesday show, but this year those were compressed into three sections of slack, held Monday morning and night and Tuesday morning.
First go-round in all the timed events was completed before the official start of the rodeo on Wednesday, while the second go-round of steer roping also was wrapped up on Tuesday. There will be no short-go round on the final night of the rodeo this year, so the combined time winners for the three go-rounds in steer roping and for the two go-rounds in the other events will end up as the overall champion (Results for Monday and Tuesday’s events are on Page 5-B of today’s paper).
The rodeo began at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday night and will start at that time on its final three nights as well. In addition to bull riding and the timed steer roping, calf roping, team roping and steer wrestling events, saddle bronc and bareback riders were going to get their first chance at this year’s rodeo on Wednesday, as would the ladies barrel racers.
Wednesday was also the first night for the local events, the wild cow milking and the wild horse ride. The top finishers in those events from the rodeo’s first three nights will return for the finals on Saturday.
Pecos Enterprise
York M. "Smokey" Briggs, Publisher
324 S. Cedar St., Pecos, TX 79772
Phone 432-445-5475, FAX 432-445-4321
e-mail news@pecos.net
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Copyright 2003-04 by Pecos Enterprise
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