Barrel racing success leads EMCC women to team title at Three Rivers College rodeo

SIKESTON, Mo. — The East Mississippi Community College women's rodeo team claimed its 10^th NIRA Ozark Region event team title in school history by earning first-place honors this past weekend at the Three Rivers College Championship College Rodeo.  The three-day event, presented by Farm Credit Southeast Missouri and co-hosted by the Sikeston Jaycees, concluded Saturday at the Art Saunders Arena at the Sikeston Jaycee Bootheel Rodeo grounds.

On the strength of 400 points earned in the barrel racing competition, the EMCC women outdistanced team runner-up West Alabama, 495-270.  On the men's side, the Lions finished fourth with 340 team points.  Missouri Valley College captured the men's title over Tennessee-Martin, 960-625.

In collecting their first region event team title since winning three times a year ago en route to earning a school-first NIRA Ozark Region regular-season team championship and posting a program-best, fourth-place team finish at this past June's College National Finals Rodeo, the EMCC women claimed 400 of the 630 total barrel racing points assigned this past weekend at Three Rivers with individual finishes at first, third and fourth place.

Taycie Matthews, the reigning Ozark Region barrel racing champion, recorded her sixth career region event victory with 170 points on runs of 16.5 and 16.12 seconds.  Mikayla Joh Almond (Olin, NC) placed third with 130 points after clocking times of 16.56 and 16.54 seconds.  Jaylie Matthews, the reigning CNFR reserve champion barrel racer, settled for fourth place and 100 points with efforts of 16.59 and 16.57 seconds.  She had opened the 2021 fall rodeo season with back-to-back barrel racing wins at events hosted by Missouri Valley and West Alabama.

The Matthews sisters, from Wynne, Ark., have now combined to earn 15 career Ozark Region barrel racing event wins between them dating back to the 2019-20 rodeo season.  Taycie won five times last year on the way to claiming the 2020-21 Ozark Region regular-season barrel racing title, while older sister Jaylie, the 2019-20 Ozark Region regular-season champion, previously secured four event titles in her specialty event last year and three first-place finishes during the pandemic-shortened 2019-20 rodeo season.  In addition to having teamed to win the first three barrel racing events this season in Ozark Region competition, the Matthews sisters combined to claim nine of the 10 Ozark Region regular-season barrel racing events during the 2020-21 season.

Reigning CNFR participant Blair Bryant (Hatchechubbee, AL) earned EMCC's other 95 points in women's competition at Three Rivers with a third-place showing in the breakaway roping event.

The EMCC men registered 270 of their 340 total team points this past weekend in the tie-down roping event.  Tanner Brown (Florence) posted consistent efforts of 10.5 and 10.9 seconds to collect 130 points and first-place honors.  Matt Watt (Scooba) followed in fourth place overall with 105 points, including a 9.6-second clocking to place second in the final round, while Myles Neighbors (Benton, AR) added 35 points with his first-round effort of 10.6 seconds.

Neighbors also collected 70 points in the steer wrestling competition with his winning time of 4.6 seconds in the final round.    

Additionally, EMCC's team roping tandem of Garrett Pittman (Brandon) and Rickie Hunt (Shuqualak) secured 90 individual points apiece with a third-place overall finish that was highlighted by a second-place run in the final round.

Coach Morgan Goodrich's East Mississippi rodeo teams are slated to return to action at the Southern Arkansas University-hosted event, Nov. 4-6, in Magnolia, Ark.