28
Courtesy of ERA
Begay and Cooper win again at
Albuquerque ERA Premier Tour Stop No. 7
ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico (May 20, 2016) – With a great run working in her favor, 10-year-old Chayni Chamberlain (Stephenville, Texas) now sits atop the Elite Rodeo Athletes (ERA) Premier Tour world standings in barrel racing, tied with Ashley Shafer (Yoder, Wyoming) after Friday’s Stop No. 7 in Albuquerque. Chamberlain ran in 14.27 seconds, tying with Sarah Rose McDonald (Brunswick, Georgia) for third place. When overall season leader Schafer toppled her second barrel, resulting in a run of 19.06 seconds with the five-second penalty, Chamberlain’s 212.5 points for the third place finish were enough to move her into first place alongside Schafer.
For the third time this season, the World Championship Team Roping duo of Derrick Begay (Seba Dalkai, Arizona) and Clay Cooper (Gardenerville, Nevada) landed atop the podium as the winners the ERA Premier Tour’s Team Roping competition.
Albuquerque fans saw Begay and Cooper produce a 4.62-second run, just one-one-hundredth of a second faster than the second place team of Speed Williams (Jacksonville, Florida) and Rich Skelton (Llano, Texas) (4.63 seconds). For the win, Begay and Cooper earned 275 points which gives them a 425-point lead in the ERA World Standings.
In third place behind Williams and Skelton was Charly Crawford (Prineville, Oregon) and Kollin VonAhn (Sac City, Iowa) with a run of 4.78 seconds.
Zeke Thurston, the 22-year old saddle bronc rider from Big Valley, Alberta, picked up his first ERA Premier Tour win with an 85.5-point ride on Stace Smith’s Ned Pepper. Tied for seventh place in the ERA world standings, the win moved Thurston into fifth place, now tied with New Mexico’s Taos Muncy. In second place was Isaac Diaz who posted a score of 83 points on Hello Dolly. Bradley Harter’s 81.5-point score on Levi the Boss landed him in third place.
The steer wrestling competition generated some of the fastest scores of the season. Each of the Top 3 cowboys dogged their steer to the ground in under 4 seconds – Casey Martin (Sulphur, Louisiana) in 3.62 seconds for the win; Stockton Graves (Alva, Oklahoma), in 3.74 seconds and Nick Guy (Sparta, Wisconsin) in 3.90 seconds. It was Martin’s first win of the 2016 ERA Premier Tour and moved him from ninth place into a tie for sixth place in the ERA world standings with Luke Branquinho (Los Alamos, California).
The World Champions reigned supreme in tie-down roping with 3-time World Champion Tuf Cooper (Decatur, Texas) picking up his second victory of the year with an 8.12-second. Behind him in second place was 8-time World Champion Fred Whitfield with a time of 8.28 seconds, and rounding out the Top 3 was 6-time World Champion Cody Ohl.
Another first-time winner was Austin Foss (Terrebonne, Oregon) in bareback riding. An 84.5-point ride on Greely Hat Works Sugar Daddy of Cervi stock gave him the 275 points for first place. World Champion Kaycee Feild (Spanish Fork, Utah) rode into second place with an 84-point ride on Utopia (NT Rodeo). The American’s first $1 million winner, Richmond Champion (The Woodlands, Texas) came in third place with 83 points on Black Friday (Stace Smith).
Chandler Bownds earned his second win of the 2016 ERA Premier Tour with an 87.5-point ride on Shyster (TNT Rodeo). Cody Campbell and Zack Oakes came in second and third place, respectively.
All of the action from Stop 7 will air on Wednesday, May 25 on FS2 (Fox Sports 2) at 9 a.m. ET.
Stop 8 of the Albuquerque ERA Premier Tour takes place Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at Tingley Coliseum. Tickets are available at all Ticketmaster outlets, online at ticketmaster.com, via phone at 800 745 3000 or at Tingley Coliseum starting at 12 p.m. on Saturday, May 21.
In two months, on July 19-23, the ERA athletes will return to Salt Lake City for the Days of 47 Rodeo taking place at Vivint Smart Home Arena.
The 2016 season will culminate with the $3 million ERA World Championships in Dallas, Texas, at the American Airlines Center on Nov. 9-13, where the 2016 ERA World Champions will be crowned. Tickets for the five-day event are on sale now at Ticketmaster.com or by calling 800 745 3000. For more information, visit www.eraprorodeo.com.
