ProRodeo Sports News - March 23, 2018

Saddle bronc rider Brody Cress had an 88.5-point ride on Pete Carr’s Classic Pro Rodeo’s Big Tex to finish second in Round 6 of the 2017 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo. Cress won the average with 841.5 points on 10-head and finished second in the PRCA World Standings with $282,287.

PRCA ProRodeo photo by Greg Westfall

Record Ride BY TRACY RENCK T he past year in the rodeo life of saddle bronc rider Brody Cress has been a whirlwind. During the 2017 PRCA season, the Hillsdale, Wyo., cowboy won California Rodeo Salinas, Cheyenne (Wyo.) Frontier Days and the Pendleton (Ore.) Round-Up. Those prestigious victories catapulted him to his Wrangler National Finals Rodeo debut, where he won the average and finished second in the PRCAWorld Standings with $282,287, $2,651 behind world champion Ryder Wright.

Cress wins Montgomery with 90.5-point ride

This season, Cress is proving he’s no fluke. He had a rodeo-record 90.5-point ride on Frontier Rodeo’s highly acclaimed horse Maple Leaf to capture the victory at the Southeastern Livestock Exposition at Garrett Coliseum in Montgomery, Ala. Cress broke Cody Wright’s Southeastern Livestock Exposition mark of 90 points set in 2014. Maple Leaf shared the 2013 PRCA Saddle Bronc Horse of the Year honors with Flying 5 Rodeo’s Spring Planting. “I had never had a chance to get on Maple Leaf,” Cress said. “I’ve seen her a lot at the NFR and I’ve watched when my buddies have gotten to ride her. That was a horse I wanted to get on for a long time. She was outstanding and had an amazing trip, and I would take her at any rodeo in the world.” Cress was unaware he set a rodeo record until informed by ProRodeo Sports News. “It was a little weird at the start where she had a little bit of jump out

“I just focus on the process and focus on riding one horse at a time and doing the best that I can,” said Cress, 22. “I focus on what I have always done in the practice pen, and that allows me to go out there and have that success. It was an awesome year and I loved it.”

TOPS AT MONTGOMERY — March 15-17

ALL-AROUND COWBOY Daylon Swearingen $4,033

BAREBACK RIDING 1. Tanner Aus ............................... 89 pts. 2. Mason Clements ........................... 87.5 3. Blade Elliott .................................. 84.5 4. Tyler Waltz ....................................... 83

STEER WRESTLING 1. Tyler Waguespack ................... 5.2 sec. 2. Cody Sullivan .................................. 5.3 3. Juan Alcazar Jr. .............................. 5.6 4. Dennell Henderson ......................... 5.7

TEAM ROPING 1. D. Robertson/M. Gentry ......... 4.3 sec. 2. T. Dorman/B. Massey ..................... 4.9 3. J. Johnson/C. Graves ..................... 5.0 4. A. Rogers/K. Lawrence ................... 5.4

Bareback riding and bull riding

ProRodeo Sports News 3/23/18

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