Team roping time of 14:10 best ever at Bolado Park
Hollister – Ryan and Justin Wood are currently in the middle of their rookie seasons in Dally team roping. But, watching them do their thing in the arena at the San Benito County Saddle Horse Show and Rodeo, you’d never know it.
On Sunday at Bolado Park, the two brothers bested a field of far more experienced competitors to take first place in the competition.
And they made a little history along the way.
The previous course record at Bolado Park for the team roping event was 15.9 seconds, set in 1997. On Sunday, the Wood brothers shattered that record by posting a time of 14:10.
“We got going just recently, haven’t been doing it for very long,” said Ryan Wood following the presentation of this year’s awards. “There are a lot of guys out here that have been doing this for years and to come out and win it as rookies, I’m pretty proud.”
The event requires precise timing and technique. Two riders wait for a steer to be realesed, at which point, the clock begins running. The header, in this case, Ryan, ropes the steer’s head while the heeler, Justin’s job, has to lasso the steer’s two hind legs. Needless to say, more than a few attempts at completing this event, by seasoned veterans and beginners alike, ended when the heeler missed his or her mark.
“You’ve just got to be smooth,” Justin said. “You have to stay focused the whole way, take out the crowd and all of the distractions and just concentrate on what you’re doing out there.”
Across the board for this year’s rodeo, the events were heavily contested, many coming down to Sunday’s final heats. One event that got the packed granstand at Bolado Park up on its feet was the bulldoggin’ competition, in which riders leap from their moving horses onto a running steer and wrestle it to the ground.
James Dassel, riding second to last, had an unbeliveably fast time of 5.18 seconds in his final run, one that saw him get on the steer almost as soon as it left the gate, giving him a score of 34.00 seconds for his three runs and putting the pressure on Ross Ketcham to turn in a good time or lose his first-place standing.
Ketcham was at 19.88 after two runs, which meant that any problems making initial contact with the running steer could stretch his time out enough to give Dassel the win.
It wasn’t getting ahold of the steer that gave Ketcham problems. Rather, it was getting the animal turned over on its back that proved to be the most difficult. The steer put up a frantic fight once the cowboy got ahold of it. But Ketcham was able to flip it over on its back in 11.98 seconds to bring his total time to 31.86, good enough for first place in this year’s competition.
Ken Griffin took home more awards than any other cowboy or cowgirl at this year’s rodeo. And, considering that Griffin took home first place ribbons in some of the more painful events at the rodeo, he probably deserved it.
Griffin took first place in the bull riding event, a competition that saw local cowboys endure as much punishment as they possibly could from some very big bulls.
“It all depends on what kind of bull you draw,” Griffin said. “I drew to really nice ones to start with but I had a real rank one today and he threw me off. But the first two runs came through for me I guess.”
Griffin was also part of the first place team in the wild horse race along with Bill Caporgno and Alex Nacarrato. The event was a wild one, where teams of three cowboys attempted to put a saddle on a horse that had never had a saddle placed on it before and ride it to a designated spot on the track.
Other winners from some of the events that are traditionally crowd favorites include Dean Bell in figure-eight roping, Katie Vest in the junior barrel race, Ty Warren and Brittany Brown in the junior ribbon race, Danny Cardoza in the circular track race and Dina Loveless in the senior barrel race.
