EMCC men’s rodeo team opens fall season with third-place finish at Missouri Valley College event
The East Mississippi Community College men’s rodeo team opened the 2022-23 season with a third-place finish this past weekend at the Viking Stampede Rodeo hosted by Missouri Valley College. The fall-opening, three-day event concluded with Saturday’s championship round held at the Saline County Fairgrounds.
MARSHALL, Mo. — The East Mississippi Community College men's rodeo team opened the 2022-23 season with a third-place finish this past weekend at the Viking Stampede Rodeo hosted by Missouri Valley College. The fall-opening, three-day event concluded with Saturday's championship round held at the Saline County Fairgrounds.
The EMCC men compiled 295 team points in two events by totaling 175 points in team roping and 120 points in tie-down roping. The Lions had seven cowboys participating in Saturday's team roping finals, led by brothers Cade and Cooper Cowan's fourth-place finish as a result of their winning time of 6.1 seconds in the opening round.
EMCC's Laine Moore teamed with Cannon Smith of UT Martin to earn 70 fifth-place points for the Lions in team roping. The EMCC tandem of Tanner Brown and Koby Sanchez secured 25 team points, while twin brothers Colton and Wyatt Allen advanced to the short-go round in their collegiate debut but did not score.
Highlighted by his first-round effort of 10.9 seconds in tie-down roping, Kemper Academy product Matt Watt collected 100 points for the Lions for his fourth-place finish. EMCC's Moore added 20 points in the event, and Brown also advanced to the tie-down roping finals but did not produce any points.
The EMCC women did not score in their season debut, though sisters Jaylie and Taycie Matthews, who previously starred for EMCC as CNFR reserve champion barrel racers, placed first and second, respectively, in their collective debut competing for the University of West Alabama.
The UWA women easily won the season-opening event with 435 team points ahead of runner-up Pearl River CC (255 points), while host Missouri Valley topped runner-up UT Martin, 865-700, in the men's team competition.
Coach Morgan Goodrich's East Mississippi teams will be back in Ozark Region rodeo action this week, Sept. 29-Oct. 1, at the UWA Rodeo Showdown in Livingston, Ala. Action begins Thursday and continues through Saturday evening's championship round at the Hines-Spree Rodeo Complex on the West Alabama campus.