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Led by a couple of event victories and several other top placings, the Clarendon College men’s rodeo team won its home event October 13-15.

“We had a lot of people step up and do good for us, and that’s what it takes to win in our region,” Clarendon College rodeo coach Bret Franks said. “I think the Southwest Region is the toughest in college rodeo, so any time you can win in this region, it’s a big deal.
“Winning at home makes it even better.”

Sam Petersen of Helena, Montana, won the bareback riding title, scoring 82 points to win the first round and 77 points to finish second in the championship round. His two-ride cumulative score of 159 points was good enough to claim the overall title. Petersen is now in second place in the Southwest Region’s bareback riding standings.

Fellow bareback rider Weston Patterson finished fifth in the first round and also placed in fourth in steer wrestling. He earned two spots in the short round but was unable to finish because he was in a battle for the saddle bronc riding title in ProRodeo’s Prairie Circuit, which had its finals this past weekend. Patterson finished the season as the circuit’s champion and will advance at the national circuit finals rodeo, called the NFR Open, in July.

“When you have pro athletes that are competing at the college level, you realize they have some goals they want to meet,” Franks said. “This was a good opportunity for Weston to win a PRCA championship and set himself up good for next season, and I didn’t want him to miss out on that.

“I was worried our chances to win this weekend would be hurt by him not being here for the short-round, but everybody else stepped up big and helped us pull through.”

Dylan Hancock of Golconda, Illinois, also walked away with a title, scoring 159 cumulative points to win saddle bronc riding. He was 75 points in the long round to advance to the short go-round, where he had the highest-marked ride of the rodeo, an 84, to win the final round and the average title.

Teammate Slade Keith of Stanfield, Arizona, won the first round and finished in a tie for second in the championship round; he finished second, just a point behind Hancock in the aggregate. With the points he earned in Clarendon, Keith moved regional lead in the saddle bronc riding standings.

“I was really proud of how many kids we had in the short round,” Franks said, noting that bull rider Hadley Miller of Boyd, Texas, competed in the final round but didn’t place. “I think it says something to see that many black vests in the short-go at our hometown rodeo.”

For the women, Quincy Sullivan of Peralta, New Mexico, stopped the clock in 2.3 seconds to finish as the runner-up in the first round of breakaway roping. She placed fifth in the final round and finished fourth overall. She is eighth in the regional standings.

The Bulldogs men finished with 495 points to outlast Southwest Region leader Western Texas College. That helped Clarendon College move up to third place in the Southwest Region with seven events remaining on the 2022-23 schedule.

“We’ve made some good strides, but we need to keep putting ourselves in position at every rodeo if we want to win the region,” Franks said. “I think we have the ability to do that.”

By Ted Harbin, TwistedTed Rodeo

The Clarendon Broncos suffered a couple of early losses in their 2022 football season but have since turned it around as they move closer to a District Championship with only three games remaining in their season.

The Broncos’ 48-6 win over the Quanah Indians put them at 5-2 for the season as they prepare for a road trip to Memphis Friday night to take on the Cyclones.

Junior quarterback Harrison Howard had a good game in the air as he posted 133 yards passing. Howard hit his favorite receivers for three of the Broncos’ seven touchdowns.

After an opening 28-yard kick-off return by Quay Brown to put the Broncos at Quanah’s 46-yard line, Lyric Smith grabbed a 14-yard pass and bolted into the endzone nearly untouched for the Broncos’ first score and then fought off a defender to add the bonus. After Quanah went four and out, senior Texas Tech recruit Jmaury Davis snatched a pass from Howard and dodged several defenders for six more points and set the precedent for the remainder of the game. Davis looked impressive as later in the first quarter he returned a Quanah punt 65 yards for six.

The Broncos scored four more times before time ran out in the first quarter with touchdown runs from Davis and Anthony Brown who picked converted a fumble into six points. Wilson Ward kicked four extra points in the game.

The Indians were only able to manage one touchdown right before half time.

Davis carried the ball once for 21 yards and had 79 yards receiving and Smith carried once for five yards and caught two Howard passes for 79 yards. Brown had three carries for 23 yards and Josiah Hearn carried three times for 12 yards and one TD.

The Bronco defense was solid once again with several players racking up tackles. They did a great job of containing the Indians behind the 50-yard line for all of the first quarter and several minutes of the second.