ProRodeo Sports News - August 2, 2019

BY MATT NABER

Hall squeaks into finals before getting big victory The first tie-down roper to hit Cheyenne’s arena for the short go wasn’t even listed on the daysheet. Seth Hall had narrowly qualified for the final round. He made the most of it. Hall placed fourth in the two-head average for the

One run vaults Lord bid A single run was a season-changer for steer wrestler Eli Lord. Clocking in at 6.9 seconds in Cheyenne’s final round, the 25-year-old, South Dakota cowboy won $10,193 and launched from 43rd to 29th in the PRCA | RAM World Standings. “I had a rough couple of weeks before this and any win helps, but this helps more than most,” Lord said. Lord was quick to credit his horse, Francis, and hazer, Linn Churchill, for the win. “I’ve had her (Francis) for three years, and she’s just as important as anything,” Lord said. “She scores well and moves well because of how fresh the steers are.” Churchill could be a good luck charm for Cheyenne’s bulldoggers. Lord is the third cowboy Churchill has hazed for to win the “Daddy of ’emAll.” “He’s hazed for me the last two years here, and he always does a good job,” Lord said of Churchill, who competed at the 2006 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo. “He and my dad grew up together, and the first steer I jumped was at his house. He’s slowed down a little, but he made two trips here for me. The hazer is over half the run here because there are so many variables they control.” The 2018 season was Lord’s best since starting his ProRodeo career in 2013. As a two-event cowboy, he ranked 18th in the all-around with $37,945, 52nd in steer wrestling with $24,021 and 95th as a team roping header with $13,924.

“He has a bit of a punch to him,” Hall said. “If you don’t have his friends with him, he gets weird until it’s game time. He’ll run into the trailer and pin his ears when I feed him.” The 29-year-old, NewMexico cowboy had competed at Cheyenne “seven or eight times” and qualified for the short round in 2012. Hall was ranked outside the top 50 of the world standings before the win. The $12,612 he earned boosted him to 42nd and altered his plans for the season. “I’ve been easing around, and you don’t want to miss Cheyenne,” Hall said. “I wanted to get my horses together and get my feet wet with more money and better finances. It’s taken years to get to this point.”

first round in 22.5 seconds and made a second-place, 14.4-second run in the second performance of the quarterfinals. He returned to the arena for a 10.5-second run in the finals with his 14-year-old sorrel, Weirdo. “It’s a huge win, and I can’t explain it, but I’d dreamed about it and was just ready to get the job done and see where the cards landed,” Hall said. Weirdo helped make it possible.

Bird and Yates catch Cheyenne title Three months into their newly formed partnership, team ropers Dustin Bird and Trey Yates scored their first Cheyenne Frontier Days win. “He believed in me, and that’s a big deal to ask just a kid to rope with him,” Yates said. Bird, 39, is a five-time qualifier for the Wrangler a few steers,” Bird said. “Then it was a one-header at the finals.” “Besides the one I messed up, we had been catching as fast as we could, and we drew at the top end of the steers,” Yates added. Yates didn’t get to celebrate the team roping win for long as he was back in the box for steer roping with his 18-year-old horse, YY. “I pretty much learned to rope on him,” Yates said. “In high-pressure situations he makes my job easy since he has been everywhere.” Bird was riding Puppy, an 8-year-old horse he bought fromChad Masters in March. Scoring $11,979 in Cheyenne pushed Bird to 28th Eva Scofield photo Dustin Bird (right) and Trey Yates won Cheyenne by 1.5 seconds with their 7.8-second run in the final. National Finals Rodeo (2012-14, ’16 and ’17) on his 18th year of ProRodeo competition. Yates, 24, won the 2018 Wrangler NFR average title and is the son of 21-time Wrangler NFR competitor J.D. Yates (1975-93, ’96 and 2002). In the qualifying round, they placed sixth with 19.4 seconds on two head. They kept improving from there, placing second in the fourth performance of the quarterfinals with a 9.2-second run and winning the final round by a margin of 1.5 seconds with a 7.8-second run. “I thought we roped consistently and caught quite in the PRCA | RAMWorld Standings in team roping heading and Yates to 16th in team roping heeling. “It helps a lot, it’s good to get a boost,” Bird said.

ProRodeo Sports News 8/2/2019

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