ProRodeo Sports News - January 26, 2018

XTREME BULLS Fresh Start

BY SCOTT KANIEWSKI N ormally, Lane Nobles will call his wife, Shelby, and let her know how his bull ride went. When he picked up his phone to call her from the SWELS – Xtreme Bulls at Fort Worth, Texas, on Jan. 16, she already knew after watching the competition online via the Wrangler Network. The two sweated out the second night of competition, again watching online, hoping Nobles’ first-night score would hold up. It did. Nobles, 26, put together a 179-point average on two head to win the Jan. 16-17 competition and notch his first PRCA average title. “She’s pretty patient with me until I get done (with a rodeo),” Nobles said. “Then I’ll give her a call. But as soon as I called I wasn’t thinking much about her already knowing. I was just calling to tell her how everything was going and how I did. She was already pretty pumped up about it, congratulating me. She was as excited as I was, and she wasn’t even there to watch it.” Nobles wins Xtreme Bulls average, $16,000

Lane Nobles scored 179 points on two

head to win the average at the SWELS – Xtreme Bulls in Fort Worth, Texas, Jan. 16-17. James Phifer photo

SOMETHINGTO CHEERABOUT

The first two seasons of Nobles’ bull riding career have

been struggles, to say the least.

off Trevor Kastner by two points. Kastner had tied Nobles in the short-go on Hurst Pro Rodeo’s YellowHair. Only two other riders covered two bulls. Nate Perry finished third Tuesday, and Joe Frost was the only one to do itWednesday night, placing fourth. “There were some pretty good bull riders,” Nobles said. “Watching there toward the end, I really wanted to win this – I like for all my friends to do well – but I wanted to pull it out in the end. … I was kind of cringing a little bit.” Nobles won $16,129. Last season, he won $15,370 for the whole year. “To come in now and start the year out like that sure does give you a boost of confidence,” he said. BIG-TIME RECOVERY Last year, at the Parker County Sheriff ’s Posse Xtreme Bulls in Weatherford, Texas, June 6, he dislocated his elbow and tore in half the flexor tendon and the rest of the ligaments around the bone in his free arm. That knocked him out of competition for more than two months, he said. The swelling was so bad that an initial ultrasound couldn’t determine

But winning the SWELS – Xtreme Bulls competition garnered himmore than $16,000 and placed him fourth in the Jan. 18 PRCA World Standings. The Gatesville, Texas, cowboy rode Tuesday night, but watched the second night of the event online because he had to get home to tend to cattle. “My wife went to jumping up and down on the bed, I jumped up, I was pretty excited about it,” Nobles said. “My dad called me, he was all pumped up about it. It was a pretty uplifting feeling.” They weren’t the only ones excited. Lane and Shelby’s 3-year-old son, River, had been running around the house dressed like Batman throughout the evening. So when he saw his parents excited, he only got more fired up. “He’s been wound up the whole night,” Nobles laughed. “He thinks he’s a superhero. He’s been Batman-caping it up and watching cartoons. As soon as we were all pumped up, he got even more so.” Nobles placed third in the first round Tuesday after scoring 88.5 points. He topped that by tying for first in the short-go, scoring 90.5 points on Hurst Pro Rodeo’s Cimmaron. His average score of 179 points on two head held

ProRodeo Sports News 1/26/18

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