EMCC men close out regular season with record-setting rodeo win in Senatobia

SENATOBIA — Highlighted by two individual wins, a pair of runner-up finishes and a third-place effort, the East Mississippi Community College men's rodeo team totaled an all-time program-record 985 team points in claiming first-place honors at Northwest Mississippi Community College's annual Ranger Rodeo held this past weekend. The EMCC women posted a spring-best fourth-place team finish at the three-day event that concluded Saturday at the Northwest Multipurpose Arena.

Besting their previous single-event team standard of 815 points recorded during their 2016 men's team win at the Southern Arkansas University-hosted rodeo, the Lions' victory this past weekend at Northwest marked their 10^th men's team regional event win in program history since EMCC began competing in rodeo during the 2010-11 season. Earlier this season, the Lions shared men's team honors with UT Martin in this year's spring opener hosted by EMCC at the Lauderdale County Agri-Center in Meridian.

Aided by their two event wins and two runner-up finishes during the 2022-23 rodeo season, the EMCC men's team finished third among the Ozark Region team standings with 4,665 composite team points on the year.

Outdistancing runner-up UT Martin by 270 points in Senatobia, the EMCC men received event wins from team roping header Cooper Cowan, who paired with Southern Arkansas' Cash Davis to earn the maximum 180 points apiece, as well as from Tanner Brown in the tie-down roping event. Cowan did not rope with his brother at Northwest this past week, as Cade was busy instead advancing to the top four in the prestigious Resistol Rookie Roundup event held in Fort Worth, Texas. For the season, Cooper and Cade Cowan, out of Marshall Academy, claimed this year's individual Ozark Region championships in the team roping header and heeler categories, respectively, to garner repeat invitations to the College National Finals Rodeo, June 11-17, in Casper, Wyoming.

Finishing second behind the Cowan brothers with a combined total of 260 points earned in team roping this past weekend in Senatobia was the CNFR-bound EMCC tandem of header Koby Sanchez and Brown. A team roping heeler, Brown will make his second straight College National Finals Rodeo appearance after competing in tie-down roping at last year's CNFR. The Florence native most recently collected 150 first-place points in Northwest's tie-down roping event by winning the second round in a time of 10.6 seconds.

EMCC cowboys Laine Moore, of Albertville, Ala., and Poplarville's Gavin Lee also scored in two different events during last week's regular-season finale. Moore grabbed runner-up honors and 135 points in steer wrestling with a 4.2-second clocking in the opening round, along with adding 80 points in tie-down roping after a winning effort of 11 seconds during the first round. Lee finished third in bareback riding with 110 points and earned 70 points in the steer wrestling event.

In addition, EMCC's Roper Stoots, out of Louisville High School, secured 80 individual points in the tie-down roping competition.

For the EMCC women's team, freshman Juliana Jennings, out of Simpson Academy, was responsible for collecting all 140 team points for her second-place finish in breakaway roping after winning the opening round with a time of 2.1 seconds.

Regular-season Ozark Region women's champion West Alabama closed out the regular season at Northwest with another team win (565 points) over runner-up Pearl River CC (375) and third-place Missouri Valley College (195).