OPSU Communications
Garden City, Kan. — The Panhandle State University Rodeo team had a successful weekend at the Garden City Community College rodeo this past weekend. The team captured four individual titles, both all-around titles, and the men’s team title. The women’s team finished in third place. Leading the way for the Aggies was junior Will Martin and senior Randi Buchanan. Martin captured the men’s all-around title while Buchanan captured the women’s all-around title.
Will Martin was the co-champion in the bareback riding. Martin won second in the long round with a 70 point ride and won the short round with a 68 point ride. Martin was joined in the bareback riding by sophomore Dylan Riggins and senior Ty Pellam. Riggins was 134 points on two head to spilt third and fourth in the average. Pellam had some tough luck in the short round and took a no score.
In the classic event of saddle bronc riding, there were six Panhandle State cowboys competing on championship Sunday. In what proved to be tough pen of horses in the short round, junior Cody Ballard led the pack. Ballard spurred his way into second place with a combined score of 127 points. Sophomore Taylor Tupper put up 119 points on two head to finish in the third place. Freshman Scott Davis won the long round with a 75 point ride, but came down a little early in the short round.
Freshman Sam Martin, junior Cody Kendall, and sophomore Rowdy Chesser all qualified for the short round in the saddle bronc riding, but didn’t quite make the eight second whistle in the short round. Staying at the bucking chutes, senior Josh Frost captured the bull riding title. Frost was 69 points to win the long round, but came off too soon in the short round. There were no qualified rides in the short round of the bull riding.
At the roping chutes, the team roping title was captured by brothers Ben and Nathan Johnsrud. The duo captured their second straight team roping title at Garden City. The Johnsrud brothers were 5.4 seconds to win the long round, 4.9 seconds to win the short round, and a total of 10.3 seconds on two head to win the average. They were joined by another set of brothers from Panhandle State. Will and Sam Martin were 6.1 seconds in the long round to place third in the round. The duo however failed to stop the clock in the short round.
On the women’s side, junior Melanie Roman claimed the barrel racing title. Roman was second in the long round with a time of 13.17 seconds, she came back and was second in the short round with a 13.07 second run, and she captured the average title with a time of 26.24 seconds on two runs.
Senior Randi Buchanan was 2.6 seconds in the long round of the breakaway roping, but failed to stop the clock in the short round. Buchanan also had a solid weekend in the goat tying. She was 7.0 seconds to spilt fourth in the long round, came back and was 7.3 seconds to split sixth in the short round, and split fifth in the average race.
The team will be on the road again this weekend as they head to Southwestern Oklahoma State University April 6-8.