ProRodeo Sports News - Feb. 21, 2020

BY MATT NABER

Thurston’s rising tide

A 90-point ride on Hampton Pro Rodeo’s Rising Tide to win Round 1 and an 86-point ride in the final round took reigning world champion saddle bronc rider Zeke Thurston to the winner’s circle at the San Angelo Rodeo for the first time in his five years of ProRodeo competition. “It just helps to get the ball rolling and gets your confidence up,” saidThurston, 25. “It sets you up as far as riding goes, you get on horses that allow you to make good rides and you gain more confidence.” Thurston’s trophy case has a buckle from just about every major rodeo, including two world titles (2016 and 2019). Now he can add one from San Angelo. “It’s an awesome rodeo and a tough one to win,” Thurston said. “To do it is a good feather in my hat.” The Canadian cowboy’s win in the Lone Star State was worth $7,888 and a boost to ninth in the world standings. “It used to be you have $10,000 at the end of the winter and that’s a good winter, but now it’s $50,000,” Thurston said. “It’s incredible to see how rodeo has grown to get to that point, and I hope to be one of them at the end of the year.” San Angelo marked his third competition of the 2020 season, having won $5,176 at the Brad Gjermundson Extreme Broncs competition in New Town, N.D., in October and $2,160 in Fort Worth earlier in February. “It’s awesome the rodeos are a month in (to the calendar year) and we have this much won,” Thurston said. “To have the opportunity to win it is good for everyone.”

Ric Andersen photo Winning $7,888 at the San Angelo Rodeo pushed Zeke Thurston to ninth in the 2020 PRCA | RAM World Standings with $15,225.

Tsinigine and Lockett back-to-back champs Aaron Tsinigine and Kyle Lockett found their sweet spot in San Angelo as they won the Texas rodeo for the second consecutive time. “It’s great to win at any of them, but it’s really cool to win a big rodeo like San Angelo, a town that’s a rodeo town,” Lockett said. “They seem to enjoy a good rodeo, so it’s fun to win. I’m not sure what it is but something is lucky for us here. It’s just a good vibe and the steers are friendlier.” In 2019, the duo tied for fifth in the first round and placed fourth world standings and Lockett to 19th. “That’s one-seventh of the way on what a guy needs to win, we’re one-seventh of the way to making the Finals,” Tsinigine laughed. “The way I look at it, you go to 65 rodeos all year and I would like to win at least $1,000 at each, so I’m ahead of schedule.” Tsinigine was the 2015 world champion and is a three-time qualifier for the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo (2014-15 and 2018), while Lockett is an eight-time Wrangler NFR qualifier (1997-98, 2000-03, 2005 and 2019).

in the final round to take the average in 13.2 seconds on three head. This time around it took a 4.8-second run to win the final round to claim the average in 13.7 seconds on three head. “We got lucky the short go fell apart,” Tsinigine said. “It’s a hard setup and the back end comes in fast, and it makes a guy do some weird stuff.” Raking in $7,473 in San Angelo pushed Tsinigine to 20th in the

San Angelo isn’t the only rodeo they’ve won together. Tsinigine and Lockett, who rope together occasionally, also came out on top at the 2018 National Western Stock Show and Rodeo in Denver. “This time of the year you don’t go to a lot of rodeos but the ones you go to are big,” Lockett said. “It’s nice to be comfortable with your run and not fighting your head during the week.”

ProRodeo Sports News 2/21/2020

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