Rides to remember for DeMoss, Blanchard

ELLENSBURG, Wash. — Neither Cody DeMoss nor Sydni Blanchard had any reason, really, to expect anything memorable out of Monday’s championship round at the Ellensburg Rodeo beyond the simple fact that each had reached it.

Then, just for the record, they made it into the venerable rodeo’s record book.

DeMoss has reached the National Final Rodeo seven times and is well on his way to his eighth, but he’s had precious little success at Ellensburg through the years. “I’ve placed here a couple times,” drawled the 30-year-old Louisiana saddle bronc rider. “Nothing real good or anything.”

Blanchard, a 22-year-old barrel racer from New Mexico, had missed some time with an early-season injury and then, on Sunday, her 9-year-old gelding Shotgun had stepped in a low spot and came away limping. “I was really worried, actually,” she admitted Monday. “So we just really doctored him and took care of him.”

That TLC must have paid off, because on Monday she and Shotgun toured the Ellensburg arena barrel racing circuit in a blazing 16.91 seconds, shattering a 9-year-old arena record set by the legendary Charmayne James. James’ mark of 17.0 had come in during her 2002 campaign in which she won the last of her 11 world championships — and, in fact, broke a record set 15 years ago by James herself.

“Honestly, I’m just super blessed,” said Blanchard, whose family bought the horse from local Albuquerque friends. “When we went and bought him, they said, ‘Go win the world.’ That was two years ago and he’s been nothing but amazing since.

“He has more heart than any horse in our barn. We have a racehorse running today in the All-American, actually, and I can say he has more heart than that one, even.”

DeMoss knew he’d drawn a bronco with plenty of heart when he drew Spring Planting, a noted bucker out of the Flying Five Rodeo Company upon which Cody Wright had ridden to a 90-point ride at Ellensburg a year before.

“I think everybody likes that horse,” DeMoss said after his arena-record-tying 91-point ride. “This was my first time (on the horse) — been looking forward to it for a while. I knew her, but everybody’s just, when they ask you what you (drew) and you tell them, they go ‘Gol dang!’”

But DeMoss was confident even before he knew the horse he’d drawn.

“I told my wife before I left, it was all gonna turn around,” he said. “We prayed about it, and I told her the other day, I said I was gonna win this one, and gonna win some more and coast right on through.”

Bull rider Bobby Welsh of Gillette, Wyo., might have had plenty of reason to get nervous had he been watching all of his fellow competitors coming up empty in Sunday’s short go. None of the eight riders who rode before Welsh and none of the three who followed reached the eight-second buzzer. Ellensburg resident Allen Helmuth — who might have moved into the top 15 in the standings with a successful ride on Sunday — came close, getting bucked off at 6.89 seconds.

Welsh certainly wasn’t bothered of the others’ futility, as evidenced by his workmanlike 83-point ride. In fact, he wasn’t even aware of it.

“If you start worrying about what everybody else is doing, you take your focus off your job and riding your bull,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what everybody else does — if you’re not focused to ride your bill, you ain’t got a shot anyway.

“I really wasn’t even paying attention (to the others). I didn’t even know everyone had bucked off.”

Bareback rider Jason Havens of Prineville, Ore., won both the short go and the aggregate with his stellar 88-point ride on Monday, three points better than his closest competitor in the short go and a point ahead of Louisiana’s Winn Ratliff for the overall title.

“Never ridden that horse before,” Havens said of Calgary Stampede’s Princess Warrior. “I seen him up at Calgary, he was good there, and he rode good at Bremerton, too. Steven Peebles had him at Bremerton and Bobby Mote told me Steven messed him up or he might have had a good score. So I figured I had a good chance.”

Steer wrestler Todd Suhn swept the short go and the aggregate with a swift 12.0-second run on Monday. “I just got a good steer, my hazer was outstanding and I just kind of held on,” Suhn said.

In the tie-down roping, Texan E.J. Roberts had a big enough lead built up over his first two rounds to win with a relatively pedestrian 9.1-second round in the finale, which was topped by three ropers in the short go. In team roping, the Texas duo of Quincy Kueckelhan and Paul Eaves had the fastest go (5.2 seconds) on Monday, but Clay Tryan and Travis Graves came away with the big paycheck and the rodeo title with a rock-solid 16.4 seconds on three head.

FINAL RESULTS

Monday at Ellensburg

Bareback Riding

Monday’s short go: 1, Jason Havens, Pineville, Ore., 88.0 points on Princess Warrior, $1,650; 2 (tie), Kaycee Feild, Payson, Utah, and Jared Smith, Cross Plains, Texas, each 85; 4, Steven Peebles, Redmond, Ore., 83; 5, Winn Ratliff, Leesville, La., 82; 6 (tie), Tom McFarland, Wickenburg, Ariz., Will Lowe, Canyon, Texas, and Matt Bright, Azle, Texas, each 80.

Aggregate on 2: 1, Havens, 168 on 2, $6,611 total earnings; 2, Ratliff, 167, $6,325; 3, Smith, 164, $3,593; 4, Feild, 163, $2,484; 5, Peebles, 162, $1,690; 6, Bright, 158, $816; 7 (tie), McFarland and Lowe, each 157, each $477.

Tie-down Roping

Monday’s short go: 1, Scott Kormos, Teague, Texas, 8.6 seconds, $1,044; 2 (tie), Joseph Parsons, Marana, Ariz., and Ryan Jarrett, Comanche, Okla., each 8.8; 4 (tie), Ryle Smith, Oakdale, Calif., and E.J. Roberts, Stephenville, Texas, each 9.1; 6, Matt Shiozawa, Chubbuck, Idaho, 10.3.

Aggregate on 3: 1, Roberts, 25.5 seconds, $4,170; 2, Kormos, 26.3, $4,310; 3, Jarrett, 26.7, $3,550; 4, Tuf Cooper, Decatur, Texas, 27.3, $2,286; 5, Parsons, 27.8, $2,570; 6, Shiozawa, 28.8, $1,486; 7, Smith, 28.9, $1,230; 8, Russell Cordoza, Terrebonne, Ore., 31.0 on 3; $326.

Steer Wrestling

Monday’s short go: 1, Todd Suhn, Hermosa, S.D., 3.7 seconds, $1,131; 2, Alex Robertson, Bend, Ore., 4.1; 3 (tie), Zack Cobb, Pampa, Texas, and Baylor Roche, Thatcher, Utah, each 4.4; 5, Olin Hannum, Malad, Idaho, 4.5; 6, Austin Manning, Nampa, Idaho, 4.6.

Aggregate on 3: 1, Suhn, 12.0 seconds, $5,040; 2, Robertson, 13.2, $4,335; 3, Curtis Cassidy, Donalda, AB, 131.3, $2889; 4 (tie), Roche and Andy Weldon, Greenleaf, Idaho, each 13.4, each $2,124; 6, Cobb, 14.0, $2003; 7 (tie), Hannum and Cardoza, each 14.3.

Saddle Bronc Riding

Monday’s short go: 1, Cody DeMoss, Heflin, La., 91 points (ties arena record) on Spring Planting, $1,650; 2, Taos Muncy, Corona, N.M., 88; 3, Wade Sundell, Boxholm, Iowa, 85; 4 (tie), Rusty Allen, Eagle Mountain, Utah, and Cody Wright, Milford, Utah, each 84; 6 (tie), Chet Johnson, Sheridan, Wyo., and Jesse Bail, Camp Crook, S.D., each 81.

Aggregate on 2: DeMoss, 173, $5,252; 2, Muncy, 171, $5,362; 3 (tie) Sundell and Cody Wright, each 166, $2,350 and $2,547; 5, Allen, 165, $1,256; 6, Jesse Kruse, 164, $3,347; 7 (tie), Johnson and Bail, each 162, $571.

Team Roping

Monday’s short go: 1, Quincy Kueckelhan, Bonham, TX-Paul Eaves, Millsap, Texas, 5.2 seconds, $928 each; 2 (tie), Charly Crawford, Prineville, Ore.-Russell Cardoza, Terrebonne, Ore., Matt Sherwood, Pima, Ariz.-Cory Petska, Marana, Ariz., and Clay Tryan, Billings, Mont.-Travis Graves, Jay, Okla., each 5.4, $608; 5 (tie), Brock Hanson, Casa Grande, Ariz.-Ryan Motes, Weatherford, Texas, and Brady Tryan, Huntley, Mont.-Jake Long, Coffeyville, Kan., each 5.6, $224.

Aggregate on 3: 1, C. Tryan-Graves, 16.4 seconds on 3, $4,459; 2, B. Tryan-Long, 16.9, $3,573; 3, Sherwood-Petska, 17.4, $3,454; 4, Hanson-Motes, 17.5, $2,568; 5, Crawford-Cardoza, 17.9, $2,450; 6, Wade Wheatley, Hudgson, Calif.-Clay O’Brien Cooper, Gardnerville, NV, 18.1, $1,339; 7 (tie), Kueckelhan-Eaves and Jake Barnes, Scottsdale, Ariz.-Walt Woodard, Stephenville, Texas, each 18.7, $1,514 and $586.

Bull Riding

Monday’s short go: 1, Bobby Welsh, Gillette, Wyo., 82 points on Little Bird, $5,000.

Aggregate: 1, Welsh, 169 on 2, $9,473; 2, Chandler Bownds, Lubbock, Texas, 95 on 1, $5,044; 3, Trevor Kastner, Ardmore, Okla., 89, $3,806; 4 (tie), Allen Helmuth, Ellensburg, and Garrett Vig, Newell, S.D., each 85, $2,051; 6, Seth Glause, Cheyenne, Wyo., 84, $951; 7, Tyler Willis, Wheatland, Wyo., 81, $761; 8, Travis Atkinson, Lehi, Utah, 78, $571.

Steer Roping

Aggregate on 2: 1, Guy Allen, Santa Anna, Texas, 26.9 seconds, $3,288; 2, Shandon Stalls, McLean, Texas, 30.7, $2,811; 3, Chris Glover, Keensburg, CO, 34.8, $1,007; 4, Cody Scheck, Kiowa, Kan., 10.5 on 1, $2,280; 5, Trevor Brazile, Decatur, Texas, 10.9, $1,750; 6, Chance Kelton, Mayer, Ariz., 11.4, $1,007.

Barrel Racing

Monday’s short go: 1, Sydni Blanchard, Albuquerque, N.M., 16.91 seconds (sets arena record), $1,462; 2, Tammy Fischer, Ledbetter, Texas, 17.43; 3, Sammi Bessert, Loma, CO, 17.44,; 4, Kym LaRoche, Arlington, 17.59.

Aggregate on 3: 1, Blanchard, 51.95 on 3, $4,425; 2, Fischer, 52.73, $4,012; 3, Bessert, 53.05, $2,847; 4, Lee Ann Rust, Stephenville, Texas, 53.10, $1,833; 5, LaRoche, 53.12, $1,776; 6, Jane Melby, Backus, MN, 53.22, $2,068; 7, Brenda Mays, Terrebonne, Ore., 53.28, $846; 8, Benette Barrington, Lubbock, Texas, 53.38, $2,257.