A8 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 15, 2018
Herald Sports
Follow sports on Twitter
@HHeraldSports
Dent bucks the trend
Bareback, bronc rider
Steven Dent wins
all-around title at
Farm-City Pro Rodeo
win the rodeo and a $5,330 pay-
out. Redmond native Steven Pee-
bles scored an 87-point ride on
Saturday to finish tied for sec-
ond with a $3,657 paycheck,
boosting him to 24th in the world
standings.
By ERIC SINGER
STAFF WRITER
It was a quiet night in bull rid-
ing on Friday as only two of the
11 riders were able to stay on for
eight seconds for a qualified ride.
But the event saved the best
for last.
Omak, Washington, native
Wyatt Covington hopped on
Corey and Lange’s Hunky Dorie
for the last ride of the night, and
rode through all the twists and
turns for 86.5 points. The ride
gave Covington the top score of
the night and helped him win the
rodeo.
“That ride was a great feel-
ing,” said Covington, who gave
a big fist pump to the crowd and
tossed his helmet in celebra-
tion after the ride. “I’ve been on
that bull before and I was really
excited to get back on him again.
It bucked me off the first time, so
I wanted a little redemption and
it worked out perfectly in my
favor.”
Bull riding
HERMISTON — More often
that not, cowboys who win all-
around titles at rodeos across the
country do so with a mix of rop-
ing or steer wrestling events.
Nebraska cowboy Steven
Dent is one of the few that buck
that trend.
Dent captured the all-around
championship and the coveted
trophy saddle that comes with
it as he finished tied for second
in bareback and tied for third in
saddle bronc after a pair of great
rides during Thursday’s perfor-
mance. In bareback, Dent rode
Zulu Warrior from the Calgary
Stampede pen for 87 points, and
then in bronc riding he took on
Bookmark from Kesler Rodeo
for 84.5 points.
“I knew I drew good com-
ing in,” Dent said after his bronc
ride. “And I’d been riding good
recently and usually that is a
good combination.”
Dent, from Mullen, Nebraska,
earned a combined $6,144 at
Farm-City, which is the fourth
all-around title for Dent this sea-
son, along with the Lexington
(Kentucky) Rodeo, Roughrider
Days Rodeo (Dickinson, North
Dakota) and Kit Carson County
Fair and Rodeo (Burlington,
Colorado).
Barrel racing
Steer wrestling
As Heppner native Blake
Knowles prepared to make his
run during Friday evening’s per-
formance at the Farm-City Pro
Rodeo, announcer Randy Cor-
ley set the scene and built up
the anticipation, trying to get
the crowd cheering behind its
hometown boy. Knowles already
had a 3.4-second time from the
afternoon slack, and another
good time that night could put
Knowles in contention for the
bulldogging title.
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
7.4 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 after-
noon 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
STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
Chase Brooks of Deer Lodge, Montana, rides Yesterdays Delivery for 87.5 points in saddle bronc riding on
Saturday at the Farm-City Pro Rodeo in Hermiston.
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’ time held up
through Saturday to clinch the
2018 Farm-City title in steer
wrestling. Along with the title
comes a $5,101 payout, which
boosted Knowles up three spots
in the world standings to 10th
place as he tries to qualify for his
fourth NFR and first since 2015.
Saddle bronc
Chase Brooks didn’t know
much about the bronc he drew
beforehand, Yesterdays Deliv-
ery from the Calgary Stampede,
but he quickly found out from his
fellow riders that it was a “crazy
good” horse, which got Brooks
pumped up.
When it was finally Brooks’
turn to ride, Yesterdays Delivery
leaped out of the chute and made
a hard right turn towards the west
end of the arena, bucking hard
and doing everything it could to
get Brooks off of its back. But
Brooks hung on for an excep-
tional ride and was rewarded by
the judges with 87.5 points that
earned him the Farm-City saddle
bronc championship.
“That horse bucked like hell,”
Brooks said with a big smile,
“and she was electric. She kind
of surprised me that first jump,
she tail whipped me and I was
kind of like ‘Oh, I’m going to
really have to catch up.’ I had a
feeling it was going to be quite
a good (score) because I had to
bust my butt to stay on her.
“But this is a cool rodeo and
I’m glad to stay on one for the
first time.”
Brooks’ score was just enough
to overtake Kolby Wanchuk
(85.5) for the title and earn a
$5,330 payout. That check is a
huge boost for Brooks, a 24-year-
old from Deer Lodge, Montana,
in his goal of a National Finals
Rodeo berth, as it helped him
move up one spot to 13th in the
RAM World Standings.
Bareback riding
The bareback riding portion
of Friday’s performance was a
short one.
With five riders withdrawing
from the competition, it left only
Orin Larsen and Kaycee Feild to
make rides to start off the eve-
ning. And though the field was
small, the cowboys did not dis-
appoint. Feild started things off
with an 83-point ride on Kor-
kow Rodeo’s Broken Angel, but
Larsen followed with a massive
88.5 points on Calgary Stam-
pede’s Special Delivery — a
horse that Larsen was very famil-
iar with.
“I’ve been on that horse three
or four years previous and it kind
of made me look silly,” Larsen
said with a smile, “so I was
happy to have it and get some
redemption.”
Larsen’s score was enough to
In Wednesday night’s perfor-
mance, Jessie Telford of Cald-
well, Idaho, completed Farm-
City’s course in 16.89 seconds
— a time that was only eight one
hundredths of a second off of the
arena record. It was a time that
appeared as if it would hold up to
win the rodeo as rider after rider
hit the course but couldn’t break
17 seconds.
That was until Jennifer Bar-
rett from Buhl, Idaho, turned in a
time of 16.83 seconds — just two
one hundredths of a second off
the arena record — in slack later
in the week to steal the win from
Telford and earn a $4,213 pay-
out. Hermiston’s Jordan Minor
finished seventh in 17.19 sec-
onds and Mary Shae Hayes was
15th.
Tie-Down Roping
Cimarron Boardman cap-
tured the tie-down roping title
at Farm-City this year, but fans
that attended the nightly per-
formances did not get to see the
champ in action.
Boardman completed both
of his runs in slack, combining
for 17.8 seconds on two head.
Boardman, from Stephenville,
Texas, roped his calf in 8.9 sec-
onds for the second-best time in
the first go round, and then tied it
in 8.9 seconds in the second go to
finish fifth in the round. His per-
formances earned him a $5,176
payday.
Redmond’s Roger Nonella
finished fourth with 19.9 seconds
on two, while Stanfield’s Seth
Hopper was sixth with 20.7 sec-
onds on two.
Team roping
Lane Ivy and Blaine Vick’s
See RODEO, Page A9
Hometown barrel racer wins the day
By BRETT KANE
STAFF WRITER
Hermiston native Jordan
Minor won Farm-City’s bar-
rel racing event on Thursday
night, adding yet another
accomplishment on her fam-
ily’s rodeo legacy.
Minor, 29, comes from a
long line of rodeo competi-
tors. Her mother, Maureen
Crossley, is also an experi-
enced barrel racer, and her
father, Shane, has competed
in tie-down roping and team
roping.
But it doesn’t end there.
One of her younger sis-
ters, Jade, 26, barrel races,
and another, Callahan, 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 won steer wrestling
at Farm-City and Mary Shae
Hays regularly competes 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
Ellensburg, Wash., with
her 14-month-old daugh-
ter Monroe and her husband
Riley, who — you guessed
it — also competes in the
rodeo.
In fact, it was the rodeo that
brought the two together in the
first place. The couple met as
freshmen in high school when
they toured rodeos during their
summers off.
“We went to every rodeo
together,” she said.
They started dating when
they were seniors in 2007
and married four years later.
The rodeo lifestyle hasn’t
slowed down for either of
them, however. Riley, 30,
stands at No. 8 in the world
in team roping, in which
he competes alongside
his brother Brady. He has
qualified for the Wrangler
National Finals four times
and has won rodeos in Mar-
wayne, Alberta; Bakersfield,
California; and Coulee City,
Washington, this year alone.
The two spend much of
their time apart, touring the
country and riding in rodeos
from coast to coast between
June and September.
“We’re together in the
winter and spring, but
when the heat of the sum-
mer comes, we go our sepa-
rate ways,” Minor said. “We
both grew up around rodeos;
we’re used to the different
schedules.”
She’s raced in over 60
rodeos so far this year.
“You get tired of the long
drives, but once you’re in
the arena, it’s always excit-
ing,” she said.
Minor is currently at No.
3 in the Columbia River Cir-
cuit. Thursday, she finished
off a nail-biting race on top,
edging out Cheyenne Allan
of Mabton, Washington, and
Teri Bangart of Olympia,
who hold the No. 1 and No.
2 spots, respectively.
STAFF PHOTO BY ERIC SINGER
Hermiston’s Jordan Minor looks toward the announcer’s
stand after accepting her $100 bonus and bottle of Chute
8 whiskey after recording the top barrel racing time in
Thursday’s performance of the Farm-City Pro Rodeo in
Hermiston.