EMCC’s Cowan brothers earn year’s fourth team roping title to lead Lions at UT Martin rodeo

MARTIN, Tenn. — East Mississippi Community College's team roping brothers Cooper Cowan and Cade Cowan claimed their fourth event title of the season to help lead the EMCC men's rodeo team to a fourth-place finish at this past weekend's 55^th annual University of Tennessee at Martin Spring College Rodeo. The three-day event concluded Saturday night at the Ned McWherter Agricultural Pavilion.

Entering this week's competition ranked second among the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association's overall standings in the team roping header and heeler categories, respectively, with 960 total points each, Cooper and Cade collected the maximum 180 points apiece during the UT Martin-hosted event by posting winning times of 5.6 and 6.1 seconds. Now with seven Ozark Region team roping event wins during their two EMCC seasons together, the Cowan brothers previously won this year's EMCC-hosted spring opener in Meridian as well as having earned consecutive titles last fall at rodeos hosted by the University of West Alabama and Three Rivers College. Products of Marshall Academy, the brother tandem posted three team roping event wins last season for the Lions (Southern Arkansas, Murray State & EMCC) en route to qualifying for the 2022 College National Finals Rodeo (CNFR) in Casper, Wyoming.

The Cowans' combined points accounted for 360 of EMCC's 400 total team points earned at UT Martin. The Lions' other 40 team points were collected by Gavin Lee (Poplarville) in the bareback riding competition.

EMCC's Matt Watt, a Scooba product, and Tyler Brooks (South Fulton, TN) garnered 60 individual points apiece to finish tied for fourth in the team roping event, while Brooks also had 10 individual points in tie-down roping.

In addition, Laine Moore (Albertville, AL) earned 20 individual points in the steer wrestling event for the Lions. 

The host UT Martin Skyhawks captured both the men's and women's team titles this past weekend, with the men knocking off Missouri Valley College, 960-825, and the women finishing ahead of West Alabama, 460-305.

Head coach Morgan Goodrich's East Mississippi Community College rodeo teams are scheduled to conclude the regular-season portion of the NIRA's Ozark Region 2022-23 schedule by competing in Northwest Mississippi Community College's annual Ranger Rodeo, April 27-29, in Senatobia. The three-day event to be held at the Northwest Multipurpose Arena will give competitors one final chance to collect points in order to qualify for the 2023 College National Finals Rodeo in Wyoming.