SPORTS
THURSDAY, AUGUST 11, 2016
1B
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HERMISTON
Olympics
Landingham wins the night Idaho
Former Pendleton
resident continues
strong season with
top bareback time
R.C. Land-
ingham
of Hat
Creek, Ca-
lif. rides
Double
Dippin
for 81.5
points in
bareback
riding
Wednes-
day at the
Farm-
City Pro
Rodeo in
Hermis-
ton.
By ERIC SINGER
East Oregonian
For 10 years, bareback rider
R.C. Landingham called Eastern
Oregon — Pendleton, specifi cally
— home.
So every year the 25-year-old
cowboy, who now resides in Hat
Creek, California, makes sure he
can make it back to his hometown
rodeos. And he was, indeed, in
Hermiston on Wednesday night
to help open the 28th Farm-City
Pro Rodeo at the Umatilla County
Fairgrounds and gave many of
his family and old friends a good
show as he rode Kesler Rodeo’s
Double Dippin for 81.5 points.
His score was the best of the night
and earned Landingham the $100
dollar dash bonus.
“I’m glad to fi nally perform
well for you,” Landingham said to
the crowd following his victory lap
around the arena.
The performance was a contin-
uation of what has become a
breakout season for Landingham,
who is in his seventh year on the
Professional Rodeo Cowboys
Association tour. As of Wednesday,
Landingham sits in fi fth place in
the bareback Weather Guard PRCA
World Standings with $79,178.43
in winnings and is poised for his
fi rst-ever trip to the National Finals
Rodeo in Las Vegas, Nevada in
December. He credits his success
to a better understanding of how to
take care of himself and his health.
“I tried to workout more, eat
more healthy, and learned to turn
away a lot of horses,” Landingham
said. “Guys give me heck about
turning away so many, but I’ve
learned if you don’t feel you can
place, there’s no point in (hurting)
yourself ... it’s worked and I’ve
probably placed at 75% of the
rodeos I’ve been to.”
Another
Oregon
cowboy
that was happy to be back on
Wednesday was Terrebone native
Russell Cardoza. The all-around
cowboy, who recently vaulted into
the No. 1 spot in the all-around
World Standings with more than
$82,000 in winnings, gushed about
Farm-City following his turn in
steer wrestling.
“It (darn shure feels good to be
back ... this is my 10th year here
Staff photo by
E.J. Harris
RIO DE JANEIRO
— Kristin Armstrong had
just put together another
golden effort in an Olympic
time trial, this time slicing
through driving wind and
rain, when her 5-year-old son
approached her at the fi nish.
“Mama,” Lucas asked, “why
are you crying? You won!”
Once again.
The American cyclist who
lives in Boise, Idaho, made
it three consecutive gold
medals on Wednesday, the
ageless wonder conquering
a brutal course at the Rio
Games. Her time of 44
minutes, 26.42 seconds
topped reigning bronze
medalist Olga Zabelinskaya
of Russia by the slimmest of
See OLYMPICS/2B
and I’ll probably always come
back as long as I’m rodeoing,” he
said.
Cardoza’s performances in the
arena, though, didn’t end up where
he had probably hoped, as he sat
near the middle of the pack in tie
down roping, steer wrestling, and
team roping. He dazzled the crowd
with a 5.2 second time in steer
wrestling on Wednesday night, but
South Dakota cowboy Taz Olsen
bested that with a 4.5 second time
to win the night.
And in team roping, Cardoza
and header Dustin Bird of Cut
Bank, Montana had the best time
in slack with a 5.0 and a solid 6.2
in the main event for a total time
of 11.2 seconds. Full team roping
standings were not available by
press time.
In saddle bronc, Tyrell Smith of
Great Falls, Montana and Sterling
Crawley of Stephenville, Texas
tied with scores of 83 points to split
the nightly prize. Crawley tamed
Calgary Stampede’s Weary Joke
for his score while Smith mastered
Kesler’s Navajo Sun, which earned
Smith an extra $500 bonus for
riding in the randomly selected
Coca-Cola showdown horse.
Action picks back up on
Thursday night with Mutton Bustin
at 7:25 p.m. and main event rodeo
at 7:45 p.m.
———
Contact Eric Singer at esinger@
eastoregonian.com
or
(541)
966-0839. Follow him on Twitter @
ByEricSinger.
Seahawks activate rehabbing Graham
By TIM BOOTH
Associated Press
RENTON, Wash. — Jimmy
Graham jogged out wearing his white
Seattle practice uniform as usual on
Wednesday.
Except this time, Graham was
wearing his helmet, too.
“When you are away from it for as
long as I’ve been, it’s very sweet when
you get the opportunity to do it again,”
Armstrong wins
third straight
time trials
Associated Press
NFL
Versatile tight end
recovering from torn
tendon in knee
cyclist
strikes
gold
Graham said.
Graham was
activated off the
physically unable
to perform list
by the Seahawks,
another step in his
recovery from his
major knee injury
last season. Coach
Graham
Pete Carroll kept
saying Graham
was inching closer to a return, and one
day after running back Thomas Rawls
got back on the fi eld, Graham joined
in.
Graham went through a light
practice, doing some positional drills
but not taking part in any full team
work. It was his fi rst time on the fi eld
with his teammates since Week 12 of
last season when he tore the patellar
tendon in his right knee in a game
against Pittsburgh.
Graham had surgery almost imme-
diately after the injury and his right
knee was completely immobilized for
11 to 12 weeks. The recovery from
a patellar tendon tear can sometimes
take up to a year but Graham was back
on the fi eld in less than nine months.
“There were some dark days. It’s
been eight months and it’s been a
constant eight months,” Graham said.
“I’ve never been through something
where every day you had to do some-
See GRAHAM/2B
AP Photo/Patrick Semansky
Cyclist Kristin Armstrong
of the United States cel-
ebrates after crossing
the fi nish line to win the
women’s individual time
trial event at the 2016
Summer Olympics in
Pontal beach, Rio de Ja-
neiro, Brazil, Wednesday,
Aug. 10, 2016.
MLB
Cruz homers, M’s top Tigers
Hernandez duels
Verlander for seven
Detroit
Seattle
Associated Press
1
3
SEATTLE — Nelson Cruz
hit his 28th homer in the eighth
inning after Felix Hernandez
and Justin Verlander dueled
through the fi rst seven, and
the Seattle Mariners beat
the Detroit Tigers 3-1 on
Wednesday night to complete
a three-game sweep.
Cruz hit a 1-1 pitch from
Justin Wilson (2-4) over the
batter’s eye 421 feet away to
help the Mariners get their
season-high sixth straight
victory.
Hernandez and Verlander
each pitched seven innings
of one-run ball in a battle
of former Cy Young Award
winners. Hernandez struck out
eight and allowed three hits and
four walks, while Verlander
allowed seven hits and two
walks and struck out six.
See MARINERS/2B
Sports shorts
Anthony becomes Team USA’s
all-time Olympic points leader
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Carmelo
Anthony is the most prolifi c scorer in U.S.
men’s Olympic basketball history.
The fi rst American male
basketball
to appear in four
FACES Olympics, player
Anthony passed LeBron
James on the career scoring list
during Wednesday’s game against
Australia. Anthony moved past
James with another 3 from the
left wing with 1:08 left in the fi rst
quarter.
Anthony
James scored 273 points during
appearances in Athens, Beijing and
London. David Robinson (270) is third on the
scoring list followed by Michael Jordan (256)
and Charles Barkley (231).
Anthony has played in 26 Olympic games,
another U.S. record.
“At the end of the day,
the time has been served.
I’ve served that time …
I’ve worked hard, all
the way from the bottom
when I had nothing. I
worked hard to work
back to where I am now.“
— Justin Gatlin
United States Olympic team
sprinter reacting to the argu-
ment that athletes that have been
doping in the past should not be
allowed to compete at Olympics
after serving their punishments.
Gatlin recently served a four-year
ban for testosterone use.
EOU women picked 3rd in CCC
LA GRANDE — Following a record-
breaking season that featured the program’s fi rst
trip to the Opening Round of the NAIA National
Championships, the EOU women’s soccer team
earned a third-place ranking in the 2016 Cascade
Collegiate Conference (CCC) Preseason
Coaches’ Poll.
The Mountaineers amassed
one fi rst-place vote and 115
points overall. EOU went
17-3-1 last season, including a
9-2 mark in league action.
Carroll brought home nine fi rst-place votes
and 139 points to claim the top spot, while
College of Idaho just edged EOU for second
place with 117 points.
The Mountaineers return three all-con-
ference honorees in sophomore forward Zoe
Anderson, junior midfi elder Makensie Forsyth,
and senior goalkeeper Jessica Parker.
EOU opens the season Aug. 27 at George Fox.
THIS DATE IN SPORTS
1995 — Michael Johnson
wins the 200 meters in 19.79
seconds in the World Track
& Field Championships to
become the fi rst runner to
capture the 200 and 400
meters in a major champion-
ship.
2008 — In Beijing,
Michael Phelps gets his
second gold medal — thanks
to a late comeback in the
400-meter freestyle relay by
Jason Lezak, who lunges
to the wall just ahead of
the French anchor. The
U.S. team’s time of 3:08.24
shatters its world record of
3:12.23 set the night before
in preliminaries.
Contact us at 541-966-0838 or
sports@eastoregonian.com