VERNON—The South Plains College men's and women's rodeo teams returned to action this weekend at the Vernon College Rodeo where they qualified seven athletes for Saturday's final round.
A week after claiming the women's all-around team title at the Eastern New Mexico University Rodeo in Portales, the Lady Texans earned a second place finish on Saturday with 130 team points.
South Plains' Alex Odle, who won the women's barrel racing event a week ago placed second over the weekend and finished with 130 points. Odle had the top time in the long round with a 17.10 which she followed up with a run of 17.58 in the short round to finish with a final average of 34.68.
"Alex was able to put together another strong showing for us this weekend," South Plains head coach Kerry Doster said. "She was able to finish second overall which helped her out in the overall standings and will increase her lead in the regional standings."
The Texans finished the weekend 11th in the final team standings advancing six to the finals on Saturday.
Freshman Britton Bedke earned a fifth-place finish in the tiedown roping event picking up 60 points in the process. Bedke ran an 11.3 in the long round followed by a run of 9.9 in the short round to finish with an average of 21.2.
The Texans' Chet Boren and Zack Kirkpatrick placed fifth and sixth overall in the steer wrestling event. Boren, the defending Southwest Region champion ran a 7.2 in the long round and a 24.7 in the short round to finish the weekend with 60 points. Kirkpatrick ran the top time in the long round with a 5.0 before passing the 30-second mark in the short round to end the weekend with 70 points.
South Plains placed four athletes in the team roping finals as Kody Criswell was paired up with Hayley Danley of Tarleton State as the duo ran a long round time of 7.5 and missed in the short round to place eighth overall. South Plains' Kade Smith paired up with Jeffery Latham of Sul Ross State and earned a ninth-place finish after a long round time of 7.5 before missing in the short round. Boren and Hadley Clower finished 10th overall with their long round time of 7.6, missing in the short round to finish with a 107.6 average.
"Chet and Zack didn't draw very well this weekend but they were able to go in there and muscle out some points," Doster said. "Our guy's team was able to pick it up this weekend and overall had a pretty good couple of days. Hopefully, we can kind of build on what they were able to do and take some of that momentum with us when we go to Perryton."
South Plains will return to action when they travel to Perryton, Texas for the Frank Phillips College Rodeo on Oct. 12-14.