ProRodeo Sports News - June 28, 2019

Final Exam

BY MATT NABER D aylon Swearingen of Panola Junior College aced his first College National Finals Rodeo by winning the bull riding and men’s rookie titles. “In the back of your mind you’re competing with yourself, but we had a team there and I didn’t want to let my team down,” said Swearingen, also a ProRodeo rookie. Swearingen scored 237 points on three head, while Panola J.C. in Carthage, Texas, won the Men’s National Team title with 825 points. “I picked this college because of Jeff Collins being the coach,” said Swearingen, 19. “He won the PRCA world title in 2000 for bareback riding. With him, I’ve learned the mindset of what it takes to be a champ. He’s been there and done what I want to do.” What Swearingen lacks in age he makes up for with experience. Swearingen juggles college rodeo with ProRodeo. In 2017, then competing in the First Frontier Circuit (he has since switched to the Southeastern Circuit), he won the all-around title on his permit. In 2018, he won the National High School Finals Rodeo for bareback riding while ranking fifth in the PRCA | RAMRodeo Permit Standings for bull riding and 13th for bareback riding. At the college rodeo level, he competes in all three roughstock events while focusing on bareback riding and bull riding at the ProRodeo level. “My coach says that when I’m at college rodeos on broncs that it’s my relaxed event,” Swearingen said. “Bareback riding is like boxing because you fight for position. In bull riding you do too, but in bareback it’s more finesse. You have to be loose and cool and let it happen, because if you fight the bronc riding it does not work.” Swearingen’s name appears in four prestigious ProRodeo standings lists – he’s ranked third for bull riding and eighth for bareback riding in the PRCA | Resistol Rookie Standings; and in the PRCA | RAMWorld Standings, he’s seventh in all-around and 23rd in bull riding. Whether it’s college or ProRodeo, he’s keeping his cool. “We’re all climbing down in the same bucking chutes and getting on the same bulls, so I just have to stay on their backs for eight seconds and make it as simple as it is,” Swearingen said. Swearingen wins bull riding and men’s rookie crowns at CNFR

TOP SCORES

ALL-AROUND COWBOY Men’s – Colton Campbell 240 pts. Women’s – Mia Manzanares 322.5 pts. TEAM CHAMPIONS Men’s – Panola Junior College 825 pts. Women’s – McNeese State University 462.5 pts. BAREBACK RIDING 1. Chance Ames .............. 319 pts. on 4 2. Tyler Johnson .......................... 311.5 3. Jesse Pope .............................. 308.5 STEER WRESTLING 1. Bridger Anderson ....... 19.1 sec. on 4 2. Tyler West ................................. 19.3 3. JD Draper .................................. 20.2 TEAM ROPING 1. Titsworth/White ......... 27.9 sec. on 4 2. S. Humphry/C. Onaka ................ 30.5 3. W. Hershberger/J. Zambrano .... 30.7 SADDLE BRONC RIDING 1. Riggin Smith ............... 311 pts. on 4 2. Parker Fleet ............................. 296.5 3. Tegan Smith ............................... 291 TIE-DOWN ROPING 1. Haven Meged ............. 36.7 sec. on 4 2. Colton Campbell ........................ 39.6 3. Cody Burnside ........................... 41.8 BARREL RACING 1. Ashtyn Carlson ........ 57.03 sec. on 4 2. Hailey Finnegan ....................... 57.22 3. Rachael Calvo .......................... 57.51 BULL RIDING 1. Daylon Swearingen ..... 237 pts. on 3 2. Dalton Kasel ............................... 234 3. Coby Johnson ......................... 231.5

HIGHLIGHTS

240 Colton Campbell, of California State Uni- versity-Fresno, won the men’s all-around with 240 points. 0.2 Bridger Anderson, of Northwestern Oklahoma State Univ., won the steer wrestling by two- tenths of a second.

In addition to Daylon Swearingen’s success at the College National Finals Rodeo, four other event winners at the CNFR also are succeeding at the ProRodeo level. Here’s what they’d done in the PRCA as of June 27. • Bareback rider Chance Ames had won more than $15,000 in ProRodeo competi- tion since purchasing his permit in 2016. • Steer wrestler Bridger Anderson was among the top 50 in the PRCA | RAM World Standings with $14,740. • Saddle bronc rider Riggin Smith was sixth in the permit standings and won the Old Fort Days Rodeo in Fort Smith, Ark., June 1. • Tie-down roper Haven Meged led the 2019 PRCA | Resistol Rookie Standings and was sixth in the world standings.

ProRodeo Sports News 6/28/2019

ProRodeo.com

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