Panola Rodeo Team Has Great Results at Southern Region Rodeo

November 15, 2017 - The Panola College Rodeo Team was on the road to the final Southern Region Rodeo of the fall semester November 10th-11th, hosted by SAMSU, in Conroe, TX. The team had some great results before heading to a well-deserved break.

Bareback Rider’s, Tyler Johnson and Travis Chapman, started the weekend right with a 1st and 3rd place finish. Tyler won the long round with a 78 point ride, while Travis scored 67 points good enough for 7th place finish. The top 10 are taken back to a short go where the average on two head becomes the champions. The short go proved to be very exciting. Travis scored the highest score of the weekend with an 80 point ride, while Tyler scored 77 points for 2nd place finish in the short round. The two scores where added together and the final tally was: Tyler Johnson 1st place finish, Travis Chapman 3rd place finish. The win’s these two were able to put together this semester has both cowboys in the top three positions in the Southern Region, Travis is number 2 with 518.50 points, while Tyler is 3rd with 422.33 points. The top three at the end of the season move on to the CNFR in June.

Michael Womack, a freshman from Bastrop, La., did his part for the team in the Saddle bronco riding. Michael scored a 63 point ride in the long go for a 3rd place finish. Only four cowboys had qualified rides in the long, making the short round tough with a great field of bucking stock to draw from. Michael failed to win anything in the short round, but held his position in the average of 3rd place. Womack moves to number 8 in the region, while fellow team mate Logan Cook holds on tight to the number 2 position.

C.K. Wright, sophomore from Lufkin, did a great job for the Fillies’ side of the team in the Barrel Racing. Wright had a great run in the long go with a time of 17.57 for the 4th place finish. C.K. then came back to the short round with a time of 17.58 for the 6th place finish. The average times she was able to combine landed the young cowgirl in 5th in the average for her and her team. C.K. and team mate Campbell Grover both are in the top 20 in the region with lots of rodeo time left before the season ends.

Team Ropers Logan Cook, and Colton Johnson, did an amazing job roping their first steer in 6.3 seconds and a 4th place finish in the long go. The short go proved to be very difficult for every team as only two teams were able to make smooth runs without penalties. The cowboys had a 5 second penalty in the short go, but still had a fast time of 11.40 seconds. The times on two head were added together and the team came out with a 3rd place finish. (In the team roping a team is penalized 5 seconds if only on back leg is roped)

The Panola College Rodeo men’s team is still on top of the Southern Region standings with a total of 2753.83 points, while close 2nd is Hill College has 2633.33 points. The top two teams in each region will move on to the CNFR. The spring season will kick back off in Athens, February 9-10. Coach Jeffrey Collins said “It has been a great Fall and I am very excited for this team, we have big goals and plans, right now our plan is to enjoy the break and keep pressing on towards a regional championship as well as a national title.”

Submitted by Jeff Collins