T-Wolves tie down titles

East Oregonian

HERMISTON — The Blue Mountain Community College rodeo teams slathered a thick layer of icing on their sweet Northwest Region seasons with dominant showings at their home rodeos on Friday and Saturday at Farm-City Arena in Hermiston.

The Timberwolves put the finishing touches on 11 total Northwest season titles at the final events before the College National Finals Rodeo, and qualified 12 contestants for the season-ending rodeo in Casper, Wyoming.

Led by the all-around title of timed-event master Jared Parke, the BMCC men won both rodeos in Hermiston by more than 600 points to push their season total to 10,204, nearly double that of region runner-up Walla Walla. With eight of the 11 regions in the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association finished competing, BMCC also leads the nationwide standings by more than 4,000 points.

Parke not only won the Northwest men’s all-around, but also the steer wrestling, tie-down roping and team roping titles. He’s the nation’s leader in all-around and team roping, with heading partner Jordan Tye, and second in tie-down and steer wrestling.

Parke won both nights of all-around and four events in Hermiston. In the two-head BMCC Rodeo, Parke won in tie-down (18.2 seconds) and steer wrestling (11.7), and was third in team roping (21.6).

Team roping was dominated by the T-Wolves, which produced nine of the 10 ropers to place in the top five teams, and Danyelle Williams and Nic Nyman won with a time of 15.5 on two head.

Williams won the women’s all-around and was also part of a top-five sweep in barrel racing for BMCC, which won the team title by 490 points over Central Washington. Williams was fifth in the barrels (48.53 on two), which was won by Emily Sorey (35.61).

Also winning events for the T-Wolves in the two-head rodeo were Tyler Potter in bareback (142 points) and Lauren Leyva in goat tying (15.7). Other event winners were saddle bronc rider Tucker Hill of Walla Walla (139), breakaway roper Lexi Cameron of Central Washington (8.2), and bull rider Casey White of Walla Walla (70 on one).

The T-Wolves found event titles a little tougher to come by in the one-head NW Region Rodeo No. 6, but still secured five of nine.

Parke won in tie-down (9.2) and with Tye in team roping (5.9), and Potter won in bareback (73) for the BMCC men. Meanwhile, Williams won in barrel racing (17.48) and Trey Tucker won in goat tying (7.0) for the women, which were second as a team to Treasure Valley but maintained their big lead on the Chukars for the season title.

Walla Walla’s Hill and White repeated wins in saddle bronc and bull riding, respectively, each with 73 points, and teammate Caleb Jepsen won steer wrestling (4.6) while Treasure Valley’s Dalli Bean won breakaway (4.0) to round out the winners at the one-head rodeo.

Joining Parke and Tye with season titles for BMCC were Williams in the women’s all-around and breakaway, Potter in bareback, Lewis in barrel racing and Leyva in goat tying.

The top three in each event qualify for the CNFR, and also making the cut for BMCC were Kenneth Haworth (bareback), Tye (tie-down), Justin Garland (steer wrestling), Chaise Robbins and Chase Hansen (team roping), Williams and Sorey (barrel racing) and Quincy Pendergrass (goat tying).

Parke, Tye, Hansen, Potter, Williams and Lewis will be making their second CNFR.

Walla Walla roughstock riders Hill (saddle bronc) and White (bull riding) were the only non-BMCC contestants to win Northwest season titles.

Oregon State’s Michael Pederson, a Hermiston native, also qualified for the CNFR by placing second in tie-down.

The college finals rodeo will be held in Casper, Wyoming with performances on June 14-18.