Levelland — The South Plains College men's and women's rodeo teams will saddle up on Thursday at the Odessa College Rodeo which runs Feb. 22-24 at the Ector County Coliseum.

South Plains will be competing in regional action for the first time since the fall semester when they traveled to Alpine for the Sul Ross State University Rodeo on Nov. 2.  The Lady Texans ride into the weekend sitting atop the Southwest regional standings with 971 team points. South Plains is 100 points ahead of Tarleton State who ranks second in the region with 871 points. The Texans currently sit in seventh in the region with 735 points after five rodeos and will look to climb the rankings beginning this weekend.

The Lady Texans are led by sophomores Jenna Dallyn and Alex Odle who have proven to be two of the top contenders in the region. Dallyn currently ranks second in goat tying with 340 points and ninth in breakaway roping with 135 points. Odle sits just 10 points back from the top spot in barrel racing, currently ranked second in the region with 330 points.

"Jenna has been strong for us her entire career, and the same can be said for Alex who is second in the barrels," South Plains head coach Kerry Doster said. "They both had strong showings last week at the College Rodeo Shootout in San Antonio, so I'm pleased with what we have going on."

The Texans will look to build on a successful first half of the season as they look to several cowboys to push them up the regional standings. Sophomore Chet Boren, the defending Southwest Regional Champion in steer wrestling looks to add to his point total as he currently sits in fourth with 205 total points. Boren is joined by fellow bulldogger Zack Kirkpatrick, a sophomore from Crosbyton currently ranked second in the region in steer wrestling with 220 points, just 10 points back of Howard's Burley White.

"I've been really pleased with how our guys have been practicing the past couple of weeks," Doster said. "Zack has been roping very well and had a good showing in San Antonio, and Chet has been bulldogging and roping well and has looked strong and is a great leader for our team."

Following this weekend's festivities, South Plains will return to action on March 22-24 at the Ranger College Rodeo in Sweetwater, followed by a trip to Synder April 5-7 for the Western Texas College Rodeo.