ProRodeo Sports News - January 20, 2023

HARRISBURG, PA.

Win has Cole setting sights on first NFR Aspirations BY JOLEE JORDAN, Special to ProRodeo Sports News RAM FIRST FRONTIER CIRCUIT FINALS

I f it has anything to do with a bucking bull, pretty much just count Grayson Cole in. Whether it’s raising them, owning them, feeding them, the Fredonia, Pennsylvania cowboy is all about it. “I just love bucking bulls,” Cole said. He owns a handful of his own and has watched them buck at ProRodeos over the years. “I love everything about them. I pretty much drive my girlfriend crazy.” He’s also pretty handy when riding them. Cole picked up his second straight average title during the 2023 RAM First Frontier Circuit Finals Rodeo held once again at the Pennsylvania Farm Show in Harrisburg, Jan. 12-14. The rising star of bull riding rode all three bulls he attempted, picking up 250.5 points on three head to clinch the championship and $9,751. The big push at the Finals allowed him to leap from fourth to his second consecutive year end title. Cole claimed two round wins and was second in the middle go round, keeping his point totals ahead of Mazinho Jeremias, who also managed to cover all three of his bulls while in Harrisburg. “The first one is a bull fromCowtown that I got on a few years ago when they first started bucking him, I think he was three,” Cole said of Nates Minion. “He was out of the left-hand delivery back then and he got me down early.” Cole exacted revenge in Harrisburg, putting up 80.5 points on the bull. In the second round, he drew a bull fromAll American Rodeo, a company he lives and works with when not on the road, calledThe Punisher. In his first time drawing the bull, Cole managed 84 points. Despite a big lead going into the final go round, Cole needed another qualified ride and drew a tough out in the First Frontier Circuit’s Bull of the Year, Modified Hou fromCowtown Rodeo. “I was really excited to draw him. Nobody’s gotten by him up here, he’s unridden in the PRCA,” Cole noted. “My buddy got on him earlier this year and he told me, ‘there’s something to him.’ “I tried to just go in open minded and it worked out.” His final score of 86 points allowed him to easily coast to the average win. At just 23 years old, Cole has already accomplished some major feats in bull riding including qualifying to the PBRWorld Finals and, of course, the NFR Open powered by RAM, the national championship of ProRodeo’s circuit system. Only the circuit champions and winners from each of the circuit finals rodeos qualify to compete at the event now held in conjunction with Pikes Peak or Bust in Colorado Springs, Colo. in July. The catalyst of his second FFCFR title was a disappointing summer, which brought him home from the rodeo road a bit early. “I tried to make the NFR last year,” Cole explained. “But about halfway through the summer, things fell apart. So, after the NFR Open, I headed home to try to make some circuit rodeos and get the circuit finals made again. “I was hoping that could help me jumpstart the new year.” So far, Cole has executed his plan perfectly. The circuit finals was his third rodeo win of the 2023 season. The earnings gathered up with money won during a busy fall have him second in the PRCA | RAMWorld Standings with nearly $25,000 won already. Cole was right back on the road after the FFCFR with stops planned in Fort Worth and South Carolina in the following week alone.

TOP MONEY EARNER TOP SCORES

Tim Kent ($13,091, bareback riding) BAREBACK RIDING

Kent

1. Tim Kent ...................... 230 pts. on 3 2. Krandall Conn .................... 128 on 2 STEER WRESTLING 1. Olin Ellsworth ............ 12.7 sec. on 3 2. AJ Williams ............................... 15.9 3. Chad Stoltzfus . ......................... 20.8 TEAM ROPING 1. Z. Kilgus/D. Carnes .... 16.8 sec. on 3 2. D. Morgan/B. Bockius ............... 23.4 3. J. Mota/A. Mota ................ 13.0 on 2 SADDLE BRONC RIDING 1. Clovis Crane . ............... 224 pts. on 3 2. Will Stites .......................... 129 on 2 3. Kaul Runfola .............................. 127 TIE-DOWN ROPING 1. Zane Kilgus ................ 32.1 sec. on 3 2. Trent Turner .............................. 41.0 3. Drew Carnes ............................. 43.5 BARREL RACING 1. Christina Mulford ..... 41.88 sec. on 3 2. Jen Merriman . ........................ 43.09 3. April Masterson ...................... 43.11 BULL RIDING 1. Grayson Cole ............ 250.5 pts. on 3 2. Mazinho Jeremias ...................... 225 3. Sawyer Sibley ................... 82.5 on 1

Complete results/Page 42

Casey Martin photo

Bull rider Grayson Cole has lofty goals for 2023 and they were helped along by him winning the average at the RAM First Frontier Circuit Finals Rodeo, including an 80.5-point ride on Cowtown Rodeo’s Nates Minion.

ProRodeo Sports News 1/20/2023

ProRodeo Sports News 1/20/2023

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