黑料福利社

ELLENSBURG - Toppenish bull rider Cheyne Olney won't win the first round of the Ellensburg Rodeo, but there is a slight chance he'll be at Monday's short round after his 76-point ride during Friday's opening-night performance.

Olney, a 23-year old Zillah High graduate, is ranked 24th in the world this week as a rookie bull rider in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association. He's earned $38,000 thus far this year and has won three rodeos in 2013, including the Columbia River Circuit rodeo Canby, Ore., last month. Olney was one of five qualified rides on the night and he is third going into today's performance with Shawn Proctor (82) and Bobby Welsh (77) ahead. While Olney needs a few more weeks of paydays to get to his first National Finals Rodeo, a more pressing need is to ensure he stays in the top 24 to qualify for Puyallup next weekend. Puyallup is the first of two ProRodeo Tour finale events, where a cowboy can win more than $10,000. First things first for Olney, however, is making sure he gets back to Ellensburg for Monday's short go.

In the bareback riding, it was a night showcasing current and former world champions as three gold buckle winners found themselves at the top of the first round leaderboard. Four-time champ Bobby Mote rodeo Flying Diamond's Trip Wire to 85 points.

"It's sure welcomed, I'll tell you that," Mote said of the solid score. "That horse is sure a handful. It's not one that a lot of guys crave. When they told me what I was going to have I knew I'd have my work cut out for me, but I knew it was a chance to win."

Two-time defending world champ Kaycee Feild was 84 points on Calgary Stampede's Tootsie Roll and 2008 world champion Justin McDaniel was 83 on another Calgary Horse, Butter Milk.

It's a huge week for anyone north of the border as the Calgary Stampede, pickup man Gary Rempel and one of the ranch's greatest horses, Grated Coconut, were inducted into the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame on Thursday.

One cowboy who looked like a hall of fame bulldogger was steer wrestler Brad Johnson. The South Dakota cowboy pinned his steer in 3.9 seconds, the fastest time in both the first and second rounds this week.

"It feels good to draw a good one and finally use him and put yourself in a position to win some money. I was 5.7 (on Thursday), so 9.6 on two, I think I'll get another one on Monday," Johnson said.

Johnson is barely ranked in the top 50 this week at 46, and his goal for the rest of the year is to keep within that range as it will qualify him for many of the larger rodeos on the calendar next year.

Any of the team ropers left in this year's Ellensburg Rodeo should make it a goal to complete a clean run. Just four of ten teams made a qualified run and only one of those - Logan Olson and Travis Woodard - had a penalty-free run with a 5.9-second time. Turtle Powell and Dugan Kelly lead the second round with a 5.0-second steer.

In saddle bronc Isaac Diaz rode Roll Over for an 84-point ride. The 10th-ranked bronc rider bested Heith DeMoss - 17th in the world this week - by two points. Jacobs Crawley was 80 on Numero Ono.

Oregon cowgirl Cindy Woods reset the leaderboard with a 17.35-second pattern around the barrels. Fellow Oregon barrel racer Brenda Mays established the second round standard with a 17.45 during Thursday's slack before Woods bumped her from the top.

In tie-down roping, Landon McClaugherty was 8.9 seconds and was the only roper on the night with a time in the single digits.

Today's rodeo performance begins with the 1245 Grand Entry. Tonight's Xtreme Bulls begins at 8.