Jim Thompson, Special to the Journal | Posted: Wednesday, August 20, 2008 11:00 pm
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RAPID CITY - Terry
Fisher is living in Arizona these days but has enough family and
friends in the Dakotas and Montana that he spends a lot of his
summers here - mostly to rope.
Fisher, a native of
Ft Yates, N.D., and the 2004 Indian National Finals Rodeo
team-roping champion, took on some tough competition on Wednesday
night at the Central States Fairgrounds in Rapid City and won the
championship of the third annual timed event
challenge.
The event, hosted
and produced by Allen and Beth Good, of Long Valley, pits timed
event contestants in four events - calf roping, steer wrestling,
and team roping, both heading and heeling.
Nearly 30
contestants from five states, plus Manitoba, Canada, competed twice
in each event. The top 10 came back for a third round and Fisher
had a big lead over the 2006 champ Brett Fleming, of Irving, Mont.
But Fleming, a four-time Montana Pro Circuit champion, kept the
pressure on Fisher. Fleming picked up over seven seconds in the
steer wrestling, cut another 2.5 seconds off his deficit in the
heeling category and picked up 4.5 seconds in the calf
roping.
The final event,
heading, brought the pressure directly to bear on Fisher, who held
a slim three-tenths of a second advantage. Fleming roped just ahead
of Fisher on that final run and turned in a safe 9.7 second time.
Fisher posted a 7.2 second time to win the 12-head competition
113.7 to 116.5 over Brett Fleming.
Each event saw a new record either
broken or tied. Brent Sutton, of Onida, had the fast time in the
steer wrestling and earned a bonus check for tying the old arena
mark. Brett Fleming got an added bonus by posting the fastest
heeling mark of the day 5.0 seconds, a new arena record. Records
were also set by Jason Ohm, of Ree Heights, with a 5.6 second time
in the heading and Jason Schaefer, of Broadus, Mont., with an 8.4
in the calf roping.
