ProRodeo Sports News - November 16, 2018

CIRCUIT FINALS WILDERNESS

Born to beWild

TOPS AT HEBER CITY — November 3-5 ALL-AROUND COWBOY Brodi Jones $4,622 BAREBACK RIDING 1. Morgan Wilde ........... 247 pts. on three 2. Kaycee Feild ................................... 246 3. Tony Barrington ............................. 242 4. Caleb Bennett ............................. 240.5 tie-down roping and team roping BY MATT NABER T eam ropers Pace Freed and Jade Anderson were born to rodeo, and they proved it by clocking in nearly 12 seconds ahead of the competition at the RAMWilderness Circuit Finals Rodeo in Heber City, Utah, Nov. 3. Both cowboys grew up in rodeo families, and they’ve been refining their roping for as long as they can remember. Freed, 30, and Anderson, 34, won the first round in 5.3 seconds and the third round in 5.0 seconds to help produce a time of 17.7 seconds on three- head, 11.9 seconds ahead of the No. 2 team in the average. The ropers were just as quick to credit each other for the win. “Jade made all of it happen,” Freed said. “He heeled everything smart and fast, and he does that all year long. He’s so ropey and smart and catches at the right time.” Meanwhile, Anderson credited Freed for setting them up for success. “I think the first night he was more aggressive than the other headers

and he pushed hard to turn the steer fast, and it set things up for the week,” Anderson said. Freed competed on a 6-year-old horse that his family raised named Surfer Sweet Gun, but everyone calls himHoney Badger. “He really doesn’t care about much,” Freed laughed, while explaining the horse’s nickname. “It’s uncommon for horses to be as good as he is at 6 years old – the louder it is, the better he gets. He’s a fun horse and an easy horse I started riding toward the end of this year. I’ve ridden good horses, but he’s by far one of the most complete head horses I’ve been on.” Anderson was competing on his 11-year-old, American Quarter Horse Merlin. “A lot of credit goes to him, he lets me do my job and he’s real cowy,” Anderson said. “You can ride him hard to the steer, and he makes it easy.” Freed joined the PRCA in 2009 and had qualified for the RAMWCFR three times (2010, ’12 and ’16) before claiming the average. “That was the crazy thing,” Freed said, “I’ve had good finishes to poor years, and to have a good finish like that kind of saved the year.”

STEER WRESTLING 1. Stetson Jorgensen .. 14.0 sec. on three 2. Coltin Hill ...................................... 20.3 3. Dirk Tavenner ............................... 24.7 4. Hank Filippini ................................ 25.8

TEAM ROPING 1. Freed/Anderson ...... 17.7 sec. on three 2. R. Anderson/C. O’Brien Cooper .... 29.6 3. B. Jones/B. Roundy ...................... 34.0 4. K. Richard/B. Ramone .................. 38.6

ProRodeo Sports News 11/16/2018

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