EMCC Lions finish third in Ozark Region standings ahead of College National Finals Rodeo

SENATOBIA – The East Mississippi Community College rodeo teams closed out the regular-season portion of their NIRA Ozark Region schedules with a second-place men's finish and a third-place women's finish at Northwest Mississippi Community College's annual Ranger Rodeo. The three-day event concluded Saturday night at the Northwest Multipurpose Arena.

For the year, the EMCC men's and women's rodeo teams placed third among the Ozark Region's final regular-season standings to narrowly miss out on qualifying collectively as teams for next month's College National Finals Rodeo to be held June 12-18 in Casper, Wyo.

Missouri Valley College claimed both team titles this past weekend in Senatobia, with the MVC men outscoring EMCC, 900-685, and the women finishing ahead of runner-up Pearl River by nearly 200 points (411.66-216.66). The EMCC women totaled 155 team points in their regular-season finale.

With their second-highest team point total of the season, East Mississippi's men scored 480 of their 685 total team points in the team roping competition at Northwest. The tandem of Laine Moore (Albertville, AL) and Tanner Brown (Florence) claimed their first collegiate title by earning the maximum 360 total points between them with winning runs of 5.0 and 4.3 seconds. Scooba's Matt Watt, a Kemper Academy product, paired with Southern Arkansas' Booker McCutchen to place third in team roping with a pair of 5.7-second efforts to collect 120 points apiece for their respective schools.

Brown also picked up 115 points for the Lions with his third-place finish in the tie-down roping event, including tying for first with an opening-round time of 8.5 seconds.

Two other EMCC cowboys advanced to Saturday's short-go round in tie-down roping. Clay Livengood (Cleveland, NC) earned 40 individual points with a sixth-place finish, while Kota Wilhite (Corinth) did not score.

Gavin Lee (Poplarville) collected 70 total points for EMCC's team effort with sixth-place finishes in steer wrestling and bareback riding.

Rounding out EMCC's team scoring on the men's side by contributing 20 points in his specialty event, Myles Neighbors (Benton, AR) secured his second Ozark Region steer wrestling championship in three years and earned his third straight berth in the College National Finals Rodeo. 

In the women's competition for EMCC this past weekend, Jaylie Matthews solidified her second Ozark Region barrel racing title in three years and also garnered her third consecutive CNFR invitation by claiming her 13^th career regional event title and sixth of the current season. Her times of 14.44 and 14.12 seconds earned her 150 points at the NWCC event to give her 1,225 total points for the season. Matthews previously had three first-place finishes as the pandemic-shortened 2019-20 Ozark Region champion and followed up with four titles in her specialty event last season.

Matthews' younger sister and last year's Ozark Region barrel racing champion, Taycie, grabbed the other five points for the EMCC women this past weekend. She will also be returning to Wyoming for this year's CNFR after placing third in the 2021-22 Ozark Region standings with two regional event titles this season.

The Matthews sisters, from Wynne, Ark., have now combined to earn 20 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 barrel racing championship. After combining to win nine of the 10 Ozark Region regular-season barrel racing events during the 2020-21 season, the sisters teamed to capture eight of the 10 regional titles this year.

The top three student-athletes in nine individual events, as well as the top two men's and women's teams, from each of the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association's 11 regions will advance to compete in next month's College National Finals Rodeo. Head coach Morgan Goodrich's 2021-22 EMCC Lions look to be individually represented at this year's CNFR by team roping brothers Cooper and Cade Cowan (Marshall Academy), barrel racing sisters Jaylie and Taycie Matthews, tie-down ropers Clay Livengood and Tanner Brown, steer wrestler Myles Neighbors, along with three-time breakaway roping CNFR qualifier Blair Bryant (Hatchechubbee, AL).