ProRodeo Sports News - July 10, 2020

Wright anything but rusty with 2nd career Cody win Doubling Up BY MATT NABER S haking off the rust after the COVID-19 hiatus has been a struggle for some ProRodeo athletes, but not for saddle bronc rider Rusty Wright. Despite his name, the Utah cowboy was anything but rusty during Cowboy Christmas. Wright swung back into action by winning the Cody (Wyo.) Stampede on July 4 for the second time. “Both wins meant a lot since people go their whole career ALL-AROUND COWBOY Tuf Cooper, TOP SCORES COWBOY CHRISTMAS

$9,706, tie-down roping and steer roping BAREBACK RIDING

and don’t win it, but this year seems different since we haven’t been rodeoing a lot and the money flow has slowed down this year,” Wright said. “It was nice to win a good check, but the sentimental value is the same. It’s an awesome rodeo to win and everyone wants to win it.” Wright, 24, combined with Frontier Rodeo’s Medicine Woman for 91.5 points at Cody, the highest-scored ride of the 2020 Cowboy Christmas run. Medicine Woman won top saddle bronc honors at the National Finals Rodeo in 2010 and 2015. She also earned top saddle bronc of the year titles in 2011, 2014-16. The only bronc to win the award more than Medicine Woman was Beutler Brothers and Cervi’s famed bronc, Descent (1966-69 and 1971-72). Medicine Woman’s reputation has held strong for nearly a decade, placing second in the 2019 PendletonWhisky Let ’er Buck Stock of the Year Award for saddle broncs. Suffice it to say, Wright was happy with his draw in Cody. “So many great bronc riders go to that rodeo that it’s mainly a drawing contest, but you have to capitalize and make it count,” Wright said. Wright and Medicine Woman had crossed paths twice before, winning Rodeo Corpus Christi (Texas) in 2016 with 91 points. “Then I got on her at the NFR in Round 10 but I missed her out, so it was nice to even the score back up,” Wright said. “Medicine Woman is everything you want a bronc to be.” And, she’s gotten better with age. “I know when I got her the first time, she was big and fat, but in Cody she was hard as a rock and felt more in shape,” Wright said. Wright’s Cowboy Christmas run pushed him from 12th to 10th in the PRCA | RAMWorld Standings, largely thanks to the $5,584 he won in Cody. Last time he won the Cody Stampede, Wright went on to finish second in the 2018 world standings. If he can maintain his hot streak, Wright could find himself at the NFR for the fifth time since his rookie year in 2014. The sunny side to the COVID-19 down time is that everyone in ProRodeo had time to recover from injuries. “I feel really good, physically, since we were sitting around and not doing too much,” Wright said. “But riding broncs is a lot like any other sport where it’s mental and it’s hard to keep your mind right; knowing you’re prepared and ready. I had to work on my mental game a lot more because I hadn’t been getting on broncs. I have to keep telling myself I’ve been doing it my whole life and that it’s like riding a bike.”

Cooper

1. Chad Rutherford ................. 90.5 pts. 2. Tim O’Connell ............................ 87.5 3. Jake Brown ................................... 87 STEER WRESTLING 1. Ben Kilburg .......................... 3.6 sec. 2. Jesse Brown ................................ 3.7 3. Will Lummus ............................... 3.9 TEAM ROPING 1. E. Rogers/P. Bray ......................... 4.8 2. C. Massengill/L. Siggins .............. 4.9 3. Three tied at ................................ 5.1 SADDLE BRONC RIDING 1. Rusty Wright ...................... 91.5 pts. 2. Zeke Thurston ............................ 89.5 3. Isaac Diaz .................................. 87.5 TIE-DOWN ROPING 1. (Tie) Tuf Cooper ................... 8.0 sec. West Smith .................................. 8.0 3. Ryan Jarrett ................................. 8.2 STEER ROPING 1. Garrett Hale ................ 20.2 sec. on 2 2. Thomas Smith ........................... 21.1 3. J. Tom Fisher ............................. 21.3 BULL RIDING 1. Roscoe Jarboe ....................... 90 pts. 2. (Tie) Sage Kimzey ...................... 88.5 Stetson Wright ............................. 88

Complete results/Page 58

Jason Koperski photo

ProRodeo Sports News 7/10/2020

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