EMCC's Fisher-Pruitt team roping tandem finishes 10th to secure school-best, 28th-place team rodeo finish at 2014 CNFR

CASPER, Wyo. – Spurred by Saturday night's finals appearance from team ropers Colt Fisher and Justin Pruitt, the East Mississippi Community College men's rodeo team claimed a school-best, 28^th-place finish at this week's College National Finals Rodeo held at the Casper Events Center.

Though failing to score during Saturday's short-go round, EMCC's team roping tandem totaled 160 points and finished in 10^th place with a composite score of 26.6 seconds accrued during the week's first three performances held on Monday and Tuesday.  Fisher (Sulphur, La.) and Pruitt (Greenbrier, Ark.) put themselves in contention for Saturday's team roping championship by claiming Tuesday's second go-round honors with a 5.1-second showing.  They were honored for their second-round winning performance during Wednesday's ring presentation ceremonies.

EMCC's Fisher and Pruitt entered Saturday's team roping finals in eighth place after sandwiching times of 10.1 and 11.4 seconds around their 5.1-second effort.  Their first and third runs were slowed when five-second penalties were added to both scores.

With East Mississippi being represented in the prestigious College National Finals Rodeo for the fourth consecutive year since the program's inception in 2010, this year's 28^th-place EMCC team finish betters the Lions' 35^th-place showings during each of the previous two CNFR events.

Additionally during the regular season, head coach Morgan Goodrich's EMCC rodeo teams finished fourth in the men's standings and sixth in the women's standings of the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association's Ozark Region.  Individually, Fisher and Pruitt were ranked second regionally in their respective team roping header and heeler categories despite competing only during the spring season.  The Fisher-Pruitt tandem made its EMCC debut by claiming back-to-back team roping titles at the Cossatot Community College and Arkansas-Monticello rodeos to open the spring slate.      

Also representing the EMCC rodeo program this past week in Casper as a senior cowboy for the University of Tennessee at Martin, West Point's Will Lummus helped the Skyhawks to the 2014 CNFR men's team championship with 755 total team points.  The former Oak Hill Academy product capped his collegiate rodeo career by earning 120 individual points for UT Martin to place sixth overall in the men's all-around competition.

Lummus, who made back-to-back CNFR appearances as a member of the 2011 and 2012 East Mississippi rodeo squads, finished fourth in this year's tie-down roping competition in Casper and 10^th in steer wrestling.  This year's men's all-around runner-up within the NIRA's Ozark Region, Lummus participated in the College National Finals Rodeo during all four years as a collegian.