Host EMCC claims share of men’s team honors at spring season rodeo opener in Meridian

MERIDIAN — East Mississippi Community College claimed a share of the men's team title this past weekend at EMCC's 11^th Annual Intercollegiate Rodeo held at the Lauderdale County Agri-Center. The three-day Ozark Region spring season opener concluded with Saturday night's championship round.

With 470 of their 635 total team points coming in the team roping competition, the EMCC Lions tied with the University of Tennessee at Martin for the men's victory. The title marked the ninth men's team regional event win in program history since EMCC began competing in rodeo during the 2010-11 season. The Lions' most recent men's regional event title had previously come at Southern Arkansas University during the fall slate of the 2019-20 rodeo season.

Individually, East Mississippi's performance was again highlighted by the reigning College National Finals Rodeo team roping brother tandem of Cooper and Cade Cowan, who combined to claim their sixth career Ozark Region event title as EMCC competitors and third of the current 2022-23 rodeo season. This past fall, the Marshall Academy products posted consecutive team roping wins at the University of West Alabama and Three Rivers College. Their runs of 6.3 and 5.5 seconds this past weekend scored 340 total team points for the Lions.

Laine Moore collected 130 team points for EMCC by tying for third place with his 6.8-second effort in the second round of the steer wrestling event in addition to earning 40 points by teaming with UT Martin's Cannon Smith in team roping. The Albertville, Alabama product also advanced to Saturday's championship round of tie-down roping, though he did not score in the event.

The Lions also received 75 team points from Gavin Lee for his fourth-place finish in the bareback riding competition.

With a total of eight EMCC cowboys having advanced to Saturday's championship round of the team roping competition, the Lions also earned 90 team points from a fourth-place finish by teammates Tanner Brown and Koby Sanchez. EMCC's Roper Stoots collected 40 individual team roping points for his pairing with Nate Pelke of Missouri Valley College. In addition, the Lions had the tandem of Rickie Hunt and Garrett Pittman advance to the team roping finals, though they did not score.

The University of West Alabama claimed the women's team title at the EMCC-hosted event by scoring 315 total points this past weekend in Meridian. Runner-up women's team honors went to UT Martin with 220 points. The EMCC women did not finish among the team scoring.

Head coach Morgan Goodrich's East Mississippi rodeo teams will compete this week (March 23-25) at the Pearl River Community College-hosted event to be held in Poplarville.