Preps impress at rodeo

Taylor Cowan scores 85 in bull riding

By Jim Thompson, Special to the Journal | Monday, January 28, 2008

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RAPID CITY —  For the past several years the first Sunday of the Black Hills Stock Show and Rodeo has been dedicated to high school rodeo in South Dakota. It’s a chance for the best of the state’s young cowboys and girls to compete in front of a large crowd, to test their mettle and get ready for spring rodeos.

And considering the fact that rodeo is South Dakotas’ State Sport and that the west river country is rodeo through and through, you’d expect the western regions to dominate, right?  Think again.

Eastern South Dakota competitors would have won the regional contest Sunday except for one young man from Fort Pierre who elected to rodeo for the northwest region. That was Taylor Cowan who won the bull riding with a whopping 85 score which gave the northwest the mythical bragging rights. Allen Auer of Whitewood was second with a 73-point bull ride.

Other highlights included a 77 score for Chancy Miller of Faith in the bronc riding. He also represents the northwest region. Another Faith cowboy, Cole Elshere, was second with a 74. Both were truly rides that had veteran rodeo fans looking up and asking if they were really high school students.

In the other riding event, an east regional student, Jayden Hanson of Gettysburg got the high score of 69.

Among timed event entrants, Stacy Doll of  Reva took the honors in the breakaway roping with a 3.23 second time. Sammie Rae Berry of Interior was second.

Jase Clark of Wessington, an east regional cowboy, won the calf roping in 16.56 edging Daine McNenny of Sturgis who was agonizingly close at 16.57. Each event winner won a beautiful Ralph Maynard buckle. The former South Dakota bronc riding legend and NFR qualifier now lives in New Mexico.

The goat-tying buckle goes to Katie Jo Hart of Centerville in 9.11. She’s another who represents the east.

Sam Olson of Buffalo took the steer wrestling with an 11.67. That’s the northwest region, and Cole Fulton of Miller was second.

Kristen Lawrence of Promise won the barrel racing. She had a sparkling 14.10 to edge Whitney Olson of Flandreau and Jamie Hart of Frederick by one-thousandth of a second.

In the pole bending, Cally Thomas of Harrold got the fast time — a pretty run of 19.87 representing the east region. Jana Jasper of Sturgis was a close second in 20.01.

And the team-roping winners were Totton Musick of Pierre and Lane Fulton of Miller who won despite breaking the barrier.

In all, the northwest region won five events and the east took four. The southwest placed many times but didn’t win an event.

Scoop from the Arena: Brian Fulton of Valentine, Nebraska, one of the more successful rodeo cowboys in the region over his stellar career watched the kid’s rodeo on Sunday. Though he would never tell you himself, his wife confided that he’d been in the hospital in Valentine for almost a week in December. He’s healthy today, but the dreaded cancer that had been defeated last spring is always a concern. The hospital confinement and the resulting MRI showed that he again gets a clean bill of health. Despite that, Brian conceded “ah, I should have doctored a little sooner than I did.”

Several months ago Jim Tetrault of St. Onge saw a need to provide short term help to college kids who might run into financial difficulty. The former Badlands Circuit bareback rider started The College Kids Crisis Fund. The goal is to raise $5,000 for a small fund to help in the instance of a financial need.

Money has gone to a single mom who was short for books for a semester, to a group of boys whose rented house burned down and to another young lady who needed better transportation to get to school.

If you’d like to help, we’re selling raffle chances on rodeo tickets, rooms and meals for either the Days of ‘76 in Deadwood or the Fourth of July rodeo in Belle Fourche this year. Twenty tickets for $100 and you can contact Jim Thompson at the Stock Show if you’d like to help.

We’ve been fortunate this first weekend of rodeo to have Butch Lehmkuhler of North Platte, Nebraska as the barrel man and clown. He’s a five time Clown of the Year in pro rodeo and remains one of the most spontaneous funny men in the business. Lehmkuhler is now 53 years old and has given up his trademark trampoline act for the less strenuous walking and cracking jokes in the arena. He began his career in 1977 which means he’s in his fourth decade of entertainment. And he just gets better with age. At home, he’s a high school teacher in woodworking and drafting. Perhaps working with teenagers is how he gets his personality!

For those who have followed the woes of Pro Rodeo and the courts;  the Jim Warren lawsuit against the PRCA which was to have been decided on January 24th was held over til later in February. The judge is considering more evidence against the PRCA management and board of directors. The PRCA most recently lost a case to the Women’s Pro Rodeo Association and avoided a nearly 7 million-dollar judgement by placating the WPRA with a re-association with them. The WPRA will now again provide oversight of the barrel racing for qualifying for the National Finals Rodeo.

Jim Thompson is a veteran pro rodeo announcer who now runs a daily radio regional talk show. Locally you can hear it on KBHB Sturgis at 810AM each weekday afternoon at 1:06.