ProRodeo Sports News - April 26, 2024

SAN ANGELO, TEXAS

SAN ANGELO STOCK SHOW & RODEO

Cooke Out

Bareback rider Cooper Cooke celebrates with big win

BY TRACY RENCK T he rise to prominence of Cooper Cooke in PRCA’s bareback riding ranks continued at full speed at the San Angelo (Texas) Stock Show & Rodeo. The Victor, Idaho, cowboy claimed the average title at the Playoff Series Rodeo with 177 points on two head. Cooke secured the win with his 88.5-point ride on Pickett Pro Rodeo’s Night Gazer in the finals on April 19 at the Foster Communications Coliseum. “This is the biggest rodeo I have won in my career, the biggest win of my life,” said Cooke, 21, moments after he was crowned the champion. “The atmosphere out there was awesome. I didn’t really know what to think when I got off, but they liked it, and I was pumped. “That horse came out with big, strong jumps and made me work for it and I’m happy the outcome was what it was.” Cooke was dominate at the San Angelo Rodeo as he also won the first round with an 88.5-point trip on Korkow Rodeos’ Buffalo Soldier. When Cooke departed town, he had earned $17,070. That total vaulted him to the top of the April 22 PRCA | RAM World Standing with $78,111. “This has been crazy,” Cooke said. “I have been working my whole life for this to payoff and this pretty is awesome. The key for me has been doing the same thing I do every time I nod my head from chute procedure to being out in the arena. If you keep doing things in the same rhythm and keep your head how you’re supposed to things will pay off.” Being a PRCA cowboy was always the dream for Cooke since he was a little boy, and it might have been as a bull rider before he broke his jaw in 2022, while competing in that event in college. “I think what has got me to this point in my career is being mentally strong and just sticking with it, and being a cowboy,” Cooke said. “Cowboying up when you need to and never quit.” Cooke nearly made the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo a year ago, finishing 21st in the PRCA | RAM World Standings with $82,718. “It would mean the world to me to qualify for the NFR,” Cooke said. “That’s what I have worked my whole life for and I’m pretty much in awe that I’m here right now. It is pretty cool. I like bareback riding because it is the most challenging from my perspective. Someone else might tell you different but I have got on broncs and bulls and when a horse comes up into you in bareback riding there’s no other feeling like it. It feels so good.”

Ric Andersen photo

Bareback rider Cooper Cooke had an 88.5-point ride on Pickett Pro Rodeo’s Night Gazer to secure the average title, April 19.

BAREBACK RIDING 1. Cooper Cooke......177 pts. on 2 2. Jacob Lees.................173.5 3. Ethan Mazurenko..........172

STEER WRESTLING 1. Matt Reeves..12.8 sec. on 3 (Tie) Cole Walker.........12.8 3. Don Payne...................13.2

TEAM ROPING 1. Dixon/Helton.13.9 sec. on 3 2. T. Wade/W. Thorp.........14.2 3. C. Duty/R. Ashford.......14.3

SADDLE BRONC RIDING 1. Sage Newman.....174 pts. 2 (Tie) Tanner Butner.......174 3. Wyatt Casper.............173.5

TIE-DOWN ROPING 1. D. Hancock...24.9 sec. on 3 2. Cole Clemons...............25.3 3. Tom Crouse..................25.4

BARREL RACING 1. W. Johnson.44.00 sec. on 3 2. Tiany Schuster...........44.35 3. Donna Kay Rule.........44.48

BULL RIDING 1. Scott Wells...171.5 pts. on 2 2. Jeff Askey...............88 on 1 (Tie) Dustin Boquet.........88

TOP MONEY EARNER Cooper Cooke ($17,070, bareback riding)

TOP

SCORES

Complete results/Page 56

ProRodeo Sports News 4/26/2024

ProRodeo Sports News 4/26/2024

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