East Mississippi men’s rodeo team finishes fourth at UT Martin-hosted event

MARTIN, Tenn. – The 15^th-ranked East Mississippi Community College men's rodeo team placed fourth this past weekend at the University of Tennessee at Martin's 49^th annual Spring College Rodeo.  The three-day event concluded Saturday night at the Ned McWherter Agricultural Complex.

In posting their second straight fourth-place team finish of the NIRA Ozark Region's spring rodeo slate, the EMCC Lions totaled all of their 410 team points in two events – team roping and steer wrestling.  Host UT Martin claimed the men's team title with 750 points, followed by Southern Arkansas University (635 points) and Missouri Valley College (615).

For EMCC, Jace Harris partnered with Cooper Lee of Southern Arkansas to place second in team roping (110 points) with an average score of 12.9 following a short-go best time of 5.4 seconds.  Also for the Lions, Kemper Academy product Jacob Watt paired with West Alabama's Jorge Cruz to finish fourth in team roping with 85 points and an average score of 13.2 seconds.

Rounding out EMCC's 235 points in team roping competition, reigning College National Finals Rodeo All-Around champion cowboy Marcus Theriot teamed with Pearl River Community College's Ryder Ladner to collect 40 points.  In addition, the team roping tandem of EMCC's Ethan Wheeler and Ross Mitchell of host UT Martin placed second in the opening round with a time of 6.1 seconds.

Theriot, of Poplarville, also earned 85 points with a fifth-place showing in the steer wrestling competition, while EMCC teammate Tristan Martin collected 90 points for a third-place tie in the event on the strength of his first-round best time of 4.6 seconds.

On the women's side, Missouri Valley edged host UT Martin by 40 points (345-305) to claim the team title.  Southern Arkansas finished third with 270 points.

Coach Morgan Goodrich's East Mississippi rodeo teams will be back in action April 20-22 at Northwest Mississippi Community College in Senatobia.