ProRodeo Sports News - October 1, 2021

BY SCOTT KANIEWSKI & TANNER BARTH

Landingham moves into Top 15 with latest win It’s a year of redemption for bareback rider R.C. Landingham. The past three seasons he’s been dealing with a nagging shoulder injury, which required surgery on three separate occasions. Now, in 2021, things seem to be back on track for the two-time (2016-17) Wrangler National Finals Rodeo qualifier. He helped his own cause at the Pendleton Round-Up Sept. 18. Leading going into the finals, Landingham put together an 89.5-point ride on Calgary Stampede’s Choke Cherry to claim the title. It was a rematch from two weeks ago in Ellensburg, Wash. “I got on that horse a couple weeks

ago in Ellensburg and it didn’t go very well, I was pretty excited to have him in Pendleton,” said Landingham, 31. “I knew with the rain and the mud out there it would probably slow him a bit and get him to jump a little higher in the air. So, I had a good feeling about it, and it went just as planned for me.” Two rides in Pendleton earned the veteran bareback rider $13,248, which is his biggest win so far in the 2021 season. The victory moved him up to 13th in the PRCA | RAMWorld Standings at the time. He says after a slow start to the year coming off yet another setback things are finally

Roseanna Sales photo Finally healthy bareback rider R.C. Landingham made a late push to qualify for the NFR.

beginning to click at the right time. “It took a lot longer this year to come back, it took me six months before I started winning anything,” Landingham said. “These last four months, things have really picked up, and I think this is a great thing to go into the Finals with if I make it. I’m not there yet, I don’t want to count my money yet, but we’re getting close to being there.”

Win boosts Martin’s NFR bid Tristan Martin needed a big score to make his first Wrangler National Finals Rodeo. But with only two weeks remaining in the regular season, the options were limited. He made the most of his opportunity, winning the finals in Pendleton in 4.4 seconds and the average in 15.7 seconds on three head to earn $11,456. That windfall moved him into 11th place in the PRCA | RAMWorld Standings with more than $65,000. “I made my first NFR, I just won Pendleton, a bunch of excitement right now,” Martin said. That much money likely has Martin heading to his first NFR, getting him off the bubble where he was clinging to a $200 lead heading into Pendleton. The last three seasons have seen Martin finish in 47th in 2020, 40th in 2019 and 30th in 2018. The 25-year-old from Sulphur, La., had one objective heading into Pendleton’s finals: “Just win, just win first, that was my only goal,” he said. Martin was riding FedEx, who belongs to Cade Staton, one of Martin’s traveling partners. “I’m so confident in that horse,” Martin said. While Pendleton always pays well, Martin knows where the big score is hidden. “The money’s great, but my goal is to make the NFR,” he said. “That’s where the real money is.”

Bill Lawless photo Steer wrestler Tristan Martin earned $11,456 by winning the three-head average in Pendleton.

ProRodeo Sports News 10/1/2021

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