New Mexico Highlands Athletics

The NMHU Rodeo team started up their spring 2009 season on 3/6 in Fort Huachuca, Ariz. at the Cochise College Rodeo and then traveled down the Tucson, Ariz. to compete in the University of Arizona College Rodeo. The HU Cowboys and Cowgirls fared well in each rodeo as they came away with a couple of champions and team third place finishes at the University of Arizona Rodeo.

At the Cochise College Rodeo, the Cowboys had an individual champion and three individuals whom placed in their events. Jesse Estrada was the lone champ for the Cowboys as he took the Bareback event with a round winning score of 71 in the long go and a second place finish with a score of 69 in the short go to make an average score of 140 to easily take the Bareback Championship for the rodeo. Dustin Pool fared well in the calf roping with a qualifying time of 11.8 seconds in the long round for third place, but failed to place in the short round, which put him out of the placing for the average. Tyler Findley and Donny DeForrest did well in the team roping competition. The pair placed ninth in the long round to qualify for the short round where they took second place with a time of 8.8 seconds to finish third in the average.

As for the Cowgirls they only had one individual placer in Callie Jo Moore. Moore finished the long round with a time of 18.69 seconds to qualify for the short round and improved upon her time in the short round as she stopped the clock at 18.84 seconds. With those two times, Moore would end up in 8th place for the average.

At the University of Arizona Rodeo, the Cowboys and the Cowgirls did very well as each team finished in third place in the final standings. For the Cowboys Jose Griego, Jesse Estrada, J.C. Archuleta and Julio Maestas each placed in the events. Griego had a great run as he took the Bull Riding Championship with a score of 80. Jesses Estrada took the Reserve Championship with a score of 63 in the Bareback Riding event. J.C. Archuleta won the Reserve Championship in Tie Down Roping with a time of 11.3 seconds and teamed up with Julio Maestas to take eighth place in the Team Roping competition with a time of 9.4 seconds.

The Cowgirls fared a bit better in the University of Arizona Rodeo as they had three Cowgirls come away with some hardware. Callie Jo Moore finished fourth in the Breakaway Roping event with a time of 3.6. Devyn Dennsion followed her teammate in the Breakaway Roping with a fifth place finish and a time of 4.0 seconds. Sarah Zybach won the Reserve Championship in breakaway roping with a time of 3.3, she also walked away with a seventh place finish in the Goat Tying event with a time of 9.6 seconds.

The Cowboys and Cowgirls will be in action again on 4/10 when they travel to Crownpoint, N.M. to compete in the Navajo Institute of Technology Rodeo.

GO COWBOYS AND COWGIRLS!!!