EP. 28 - NFR Round 5 Recap
December 9, 2019 (Las Vegas, Nevada) - It’s officially half time of the 2019 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo and while some outcomes have been expected so far, there have been a few Cinderella stories in the mix! The biggest ones of all is Koby Radley in the bull riding, Emily Miller in the barrel racing, and then Haven Meged and Taylor Santos in the tie down roping! The next five rounds are sure to get wild and we hope you join us for our daily podcast recaps!
Round 5 Quiz Questions
Our daily quizzes involve current rodeo facts, NFR happenings, rodeo terminology and history!
Our friend Zach Wells with ProFantasy Rodeo jumped in to chat about the ProFantasy Rodeo which is on it’s 16th year of fun and competition for fans both at home and at the NFR. While ProFantasy Rodeo is closed for the season, you can still play Rodeo Guess and win prizes every night!
Most of you got this right as we chatted about Micheal Otero getting flagged out in Round 4 due to hitting the 25 second time maximum. We figured this was a gimme but we wanted to see if you were paying attention!
Were you paying attention? It was only two!
In the Round 3 Recap, Katie mentioned “Sharpie,” a term broadcaster Seth Davis used when filling his March Madness bracket in that #1 Virginia was guaranteed to get the win over UMBC in the 2018 NCAA tournament round 1 (spoiler, he was wrong in the biggest update to date!), and Katie also referenced when Utah’s Kaelin Clay dropped the football before crossing the goal line in 2014 and the Ducks ran it back to for a 97 yard touchdown while Utah mis-celebrated.
The answer was fifteen seconds in two different ways. The first is in the PRCA in the team roping event. There is a 10 second penalty if you break the barrier and a 5 second penalty if the heeler only catches one foot. The second is in the WPRA’s barrel racing as there is a 5 second penalty for every barrel that is knocked; if all three are knocked down it’s a 15 second penalty.
Round 5 Event Recap
Let’s talk injuries. Justin Sports Medicine’s Doctor Tandy announced before the opening ceremonies that 31 of the 124 contestants are being tended to do by the sports medicine team. Hopefully that is just heat packs and ice bags, nothing TOO serious! We do know that bronc rider Bradley Harter will be out for the remainder of the NFR due to a hamstring injury.
Bareback
After watching Tilden Hooper spur down a 92 point ride, it seemed that the Round 5 win was his in the bag but we thought too soon as the cowboy who entered the NFR #1 in the event, Clayton Bigelow, scored a 92.5 point ride on Pickett Pro Rodeo’s Scarlett Belle. Bigelow was half a point off the arena record, one he set last year in the same round! This ride took Bigelow to first in the average and #1 in the projected world standings.
Tim O’Connell got an 86 point ride but ended up with a reride due to a fall to the knees by his horse, Uncapped from Pickett Pro Rodeo. The horse gathered itself nicely which is why he still scored an 86 but O’Connell took the gamble on the reride due to the high scores on the leaderboard. Unfortunately, while he made the ride, he only scored an 84 which was at no fault of his own but it was pretty heartbreaking. Especially when you consider that he is only two points behind in the average right now.
Steer Wrestling
The Kyle Irwin everyone was hoping would show up did in Round 5 with a 3.7 second run to win first.
While Ty Erickson came in leading the standings, he’s unfortunately had to watch as that lead has slipped away. Former World Champions Tyler Waguespack and Hunter Cure are still seeing that money roll in. In fact, Cure has picked up money in the last three rounds straight!
Team Roping
It was a repeat for Round 5; Chad Masters and Travis Graves won the round with a 4.2 second.
Proctor and Motes tied for second with Smith and Corkill.
Round 5 claimed a lot of team roping teams that had still been alive in the average such as Driggers/Nogueira, Sherwood/Koch, and Cooper/Anderson.
Saddle Bronc
Jake Watson’s 92 point ride on Lunatic From Hell of Burch Rodeo was not only good enough for the round win, but he was also one point off the arena record!
Rusty, Spencer and Ryder Wright were all in the money today, as was Canadian Zeke Thurston. Thurston is slowly chipping away at the world standings lead so he’ll be interesting to watch over the next five rounds.
Officially, everyone has covered in the saddle bronc.
Tie Down Roping
Tyler Harris won the round in 7.4 seconds in what commentator Joe Beaver called a “money stumble.” Whatever you want to call it, Harris took advantage and pulled a FAST time!
Shane Hanchey went back to the pay window, this time for round 5. This has put him in contention for the top gun award although that seems unlikely with the hot hand of Emily Miller’s consistency in the barrel racing. Tuf Cooper picked up $11,000 this round which puts him into a projected first place in the all around world title race!
Barrel Racing
Dona Kay Rule comes in with her second round win in the first half of the NFR with a 13.56 second run.
Amberleigh Moore was second, followed closely by Ivy Conrado-Saebens. Consistency is key an the projected average shows that as Emily Miller, Nellie Miller, Conrado-Saebens, Hailey Kinsel, and then Moore.
Bull Riding
Daylong Swearingen got his first ride of the NFR and he went ahead and won the whole thing with a 92 point ride on War Cry from Big Stone Rodeo Inc. This means that Trevor Kastner and Josh Frost are the two guys left who haven’t covered a bull this NFR which is a definite surprise!
Koby Radley had 90.5 point ride to continue with his great NFR. He’s moved to #1 in the projected average and #2 in the world behind future hall of famer Sage Kimzey. However, catching Kimzey may prove to be just too much distant as Radley is still over $123,000 behind him in the projected world standings. It could get wild for the next five nights!
One PRCA Rule Change, Remove or Create
On every podcast episode we ask our guests for one rule that they would change, remove or create to the PRCA or WPRA. Keeping up with tradition, we are sharing our thoughts or our fans’ suggestions on each episode of the NFR Podcast rounds.
Our rule change for this round isn’t necessarily a rule change but a production change - bring in a barrel racer to commentate the barrel racing. While this may have been done in the past, it’s the only event that doesn’t have someone who has competed in that round color commentating. It would be an absolute benefit to the folks at home to have that!
Also check out recaps for Round 1, Round 2, Round 3, and Round 4!
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