Katelyn Nicholson leads East Mississippi women to rodeo team title at Arkansas-Monticello
Katelyn Nicholson single-handedly paced East Mississippi Community College to a women's team title this past weekend at the 10th annual Boll Weevil Stampede collegiate rodeo hosted by the University of Arkansas at Monticello. The three-day event concluded Saturday night at the Drew County Fairgrounds.
MONTICELLO, Ark. – Katelyn Nicholson single-handedly paced East Mississippi Community College to a women's team title this past weekend at the 10th annual Boll Weevil Stampede collegiate rodeo hosted by the University of Arkansas at Monticello. The three-day event concluded Saturday night at the Drew County Fairgrounds.
A sophomore from Lawrence, Nicholson tied for first place in goat tying while finishing second in barrel racing to account for all of EMCC's 295 women's points and collect women's all-around individual honors. Missouri Valley College placed second with 260 points followed by Three Rivers College (240) and UT Martin (210).
On the men's side, UT Martin claimed team honors with 655 points to finish in front of Missouri Valley (565) and Southern Arkansas (305). The EMCC men placed fifth with 225 points last weekend, just behind West Alabama (235), in the second of five scheduled spring rodeo events within the Ozark Region of the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association.
The women's team victory marked East Mississippi's seventh team title overall since the program's inception in 2010. The EMCC women captured a pair of team titles during last year's rodeo season at Missouri Valley College and Cossatot Community College. Having most recently closed out the fall portion of the current campaign by winning at Southern Arkansas last November, the EMCC men previously claimed team honors at the 2014 Northwest Mississippi rodeo as well as in 2012 at Troy University and in 2010 at the University of West Alabama.
This past weekend at the UAM-hosted event, EMCC's Nicholson collected 160 points for her runner-up finish in barrel racing with times of 15.68 and 16.01 seconds. She also earned 135 points by tying Logan's Kacey Struxness atop the goat tying leader board with identical composite 17.3 scoring averages.
For EMCC's men, Oak Hill Academy product Palmer White and Poplarville's Weston Pender combined for 185 points by finishing in third and fourth place, respectively, in the steer wrestling event. Marcus Theriot, the Lions' nationally ranked all-around cowboy, earned EMCC's other 40 points by partnering with UT Martin's Lane Mitchell in team roping.
Coach Morgan Goodrich's East Mississippi rodeo team continues a busy month of April this week by competing Thursday, Friday and Saturday at the University of Tennessee at Martin.