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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 11, 2018)
SPORTS SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 2018 MARINERS TOP ASTROS 2B 1B FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @EOSPORTS FARM-CITY PRO RODEO, THIRD PERFORMANCE Staff photo by E.J. Harris Ryan Bothum, of Hermiston, pulls down his steer in 5.1 second in steer wrestling Friday at the Farm-City Pro Rodeo in Hermiston. Bothum’s time was fifth-best on the night. Knowles flies to the top Heppner’s Blake Knowles moves atop the steer wrestling leaderboard By ERIC SINGER & BRETT KANE East Oregonian HERMISTON — Blake Knowles has made a name for himself as one of the top bulldoggers on the profes- sional rodeo circuit where he has won and competed well at some of the biggest rodeos around. But the Heppner native always enjoys coming back to home in Eastern Oregon for the Farm-City Pro Rodeo every year. Knowles made his runs in Hermis- ton on Friday and started off his day as well as he could have hoped with a 3.4-second run to jump to the top of the leaderboard for the first round. Later during Fri- day evening’s performance, Knowles was the last of the 14 competitors to make the run. And as he got set to go, announcer Randy Corley set the scene and built up the energy prior to the ride, getting the crowd cheering behind the hometown boy. “I try to block it out as far as fundamentally to go make a steer wrestling run whether I’m at my house practicing or right here in front of my hometown,” Knowles said. “However, I like to feed off the crowd a little bit ... I like to get pumped up a little and that adrenaline gets going and you can do a lot on adrena- line. I try to use a little of it, you know, but don’t overdo it and make a stupid mistake.” As Knowles finally got settled with his horse, he nodded his head and the steer started to sprint out of the chute, but it didn’t get too far before Knowles wrestled it to the ground in a fast 4.0 seconds. The time wasn’t good enough for the $100 nightly bonus or the top time of the round, but it was fast enough to jump Knowles into the lead of the average with a time of 7.9 on two head. After the run, Knowles acknowledged he was a bit lucky for the time because the steer nearly got away from him. “I had a steer tonight that I watched a good friend of mine, Sterling Lambert, run this afternoon and he (Lambert) missed him,” Knowles said. “Sterling’s a real good competitor and dang sure knows what he’s doing, so I knew I had my work cut out for me. The steer’s not bad to throw down, but he stops. And Herm- iston’s set up to go fast, so you gotta end up being able to see a little bit and catch one standing still out there, and that makes it a little tougher. “But man, I was fortunate just to kind of make a plan and it worked out for me.” Knowles was one of five Oregon bulldoggers to run on Friday night, including Hermiston’s Ryan Bothum, Prineville’s Sean Santucci, Joseph’s Greg Schaffeld and Heppner’s Clayton Morrison. Santucci had the See RODEO/2B “All my relatives do it, It’s all I’ve ever known.” — Jordan Minor, Hermiston native who won the barrel racing event Rodeo runs in the blood Farm-City-grown Jordan Minor part of large rodeo family By BRETT KANE East Oregonian Hermiston native Jordan Minor won Farm-City’s barrel racing event on Thursday night, adding yet another accomplish- ment on her family’s rodeo legacy. Minor, 29, comes from a long line of rodeo competitors. Her mother, Maureen Cross- ley, is also an experienced bar- rel racer, and her father, Shane, has competed in tie-down rop- ing and team roping. But it doesn’t end there. One of her younger sisters, Jade, 26, barrel races, and another, Calla- han, 24, is competing in Canada this year, having qualified for the Canadian finals in the past. She also has cousins involved: Blake Knowles of Heppner is currently ranked at No. 4 in the Wrangler Pro Rodeo Tour standings in steer wrestling, and Mary Shae Hays regularly com- petes at Farm-City as a barrel racer. “All my relatives do it,” said Minor, 29. “It’s all I’ve ever known.” Minor now lives in Ellens- burg, Wash., with her 14-month- old daughter Monroe and her husband Riley, who — you guessed it — also competes in See MINOR/2B Staff photo by Eric Singer Hermiston’s Jordan Minor looks towards the announcer’s stand after accepting her $100 bonus and bottle of Chute 8 whiskey after recording the top barrel racing time. Sports shorts Guice, Cain latest NFL rookies injured for season (AP) — Washington rookie run- ning back Derrius Guice and India- napolis rookie receiver Deon Cain will both miss the rest of the sea- son after both players suffered torn ACLs in their respective preseason games on Thursday. Guice was expected to be the Redskins’ starter after they selected him 59th overall in the draft. Cain, a sixth-round pick in this year’s draft, played so well at training camp it appeared he would see sig- nificant action this season. THIS DATE IN SPORTS Jansen on DL with irregular heartbeat DENVER (AP) — Los Ange- les Dodgers closer Kenley Jan- sen was placed on the 10-day dis- abled list because of an irregular heartbeat. Jansen didn’t feel right before the game Thursday against Colo- rado and was taken to a Denver hospital for tests. The team sent him back to Los Angeles for more evaluation. The 30-year-old right-hander dealt with an irregular heartbeat in 2011 that landed him on the DL. He underwent a procedure on his heart in October 2012 to return it to normal rhythm. Jansen is tied for the NL lead with 32 saves. To take his place on the ros- ter, the Dodgers recalled switch- handed pitcher Pat Venditte from Triple-A Oklahoma City. The 33-year-old Venditte has allowed four runs over 4 1/3 innings in five appearances. 1970 — Philadelphia Phil- lies pitcher Jim Bunning beats the Houston Astros 6-5 to become the first pitcher to win 100 games in both leagues since Cy Young. 1974 — Lee Trevino beats Jack Nicklaus by one stroke to capture the PGA Championship. 1984 — Britain’s Sebastian Coe sets an Olympic record in the 1,500 meter with a 3:32.53 time. 2016 — Michael Phelps wins his fourth gold medal of the Rio Olympics and 22nd overall. Contact us at 541-966-0838 or sports@eastoregonian.com
