RAPID CITY - Belvidere's Jeff Willert had the ride of the night during Friday evening's performance at the PRCA Range Days Rodeo at the Central States Fair.

The steady rain Friday morning provided quite a bit of mud in the arena, which hurt the participants in the timed events. However, the mud didn't seem to affect the roughstock.

Willert, the 2005 world champion saddle bronc rider, survived a heck of a battle and posted a score of 89 to move into first place in the overall standings.

"The horse (2 Custom Moves) was out last night, there weren't many points on him," Willert said. "And I was hoping he liked the mud - he did - so it worked out good for me."

After a somewhat slow start to the ride, 2 Custom Moves got some serious hang time late in the ride.

"I'm happy with it," Willert added. "This year hasn't been real good for me, so I'm happy with that ride."

Red Lodge, Mont., cowboy James Cole, who posted an 84 Thursday, fell into second place in the saddle bronc, while five cowboys are tied for third at 81.

After 13 rides and no scores in Thursday's bull riding, four of the 12 competitors made the 8-second ride on Friday, including Chance Smart.

Smart, of Philadelphia, Ms., took advantage of a re-ride and notched a score of 86 to take the lead.

"The bull was really good," Smart said. "… I knew I had my hands full, I knew it was a tough bull to get by.

"I watched him go in Caldwell, Idaho, last week, so I knew what to expect. And, I kind of knew what to do and what not to do. It kind of helped out that I had seen the bull go before."

Smart had the first ride of the night, and after getting a score of 66, he was happy to take the re-ride.

"From 66 to 86, I can't complain about that a bit," he added.

Hermosa's Jason Hunsaker is in second at 84, and Ardie Maier of Timber Lake is third with 79 points.

Andy Martinez of Pavillion, Wyo., is still leading the bareback with 85 points. Agar's Joe Gunderson just missed the top spot Friday when he came up with an 84-point performance.

"Oh, it was a good horse," Gunderson said. "(The ride) felt good."

Belle Fourche's Marvin Garrett is in third at 82.

A few new leaders emerged during Friday morning's slack performance: Springfield's Ty Tolsma (steer wrestling, 4.5 seconds); Bill Boyce of Lewistown, Mont. (tie-down roping, :9.1); and Miles Kobold of Big Horn, Wyo., and Justin Viles of Cody, Wyo. (team roping, :5.0).

The rodeo wraps up with the final performance this evening at 7 p.m.