Tarleton women take first place at season’s first NIRA rodeo

STEPHENVILLE (September 26, 2018) — The championship round of the Eastern New Mexico University rodeo featured 20 purple vests as Tarleton State University’s women’s team captured first place and the men took second at the season-opening National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association Southwest Region event.

The Tarleton women, led by Abby Medlin, racked up 340 points to pace the field. Medlin qualified for the finals in three events, placing third in goat tying, fifth in breakaway roping and combining with teammate Jenna Dallyn for 10th in team roping.

Lariat Larner, one of seven Tarleton women to qualify for the finals in goat tying, won the short go and the average in the event followed by teammates Mary Risse in second, Dallyn in fourth, Rickie Engresser in fifth, Paige Wiseman in sixth and Kaitlyn Paige in 10th.

Engresser also qualified for the breakaway roping finals, claiming sixth place overall, and Britney Wiggins captured third place in barrel racing with a pair of identical 17.83 runs.

The defending Southwest Region champion Tarleton men’s team took runner-up honors at ENMU, scoring 335 points, 10 back of Clarendon College.

Haven Meged’s two-head time of 8.9 seconds was tops among steer wrestlers at Portales. Teammate Jace Allen threw his two steers in 9.5 seconds for third place in the event.

Saddle bronc riders Rhett Fanning and Jake Burwash were second and fourth respectively at ENMU. Fanning turned in scores of 66 and 70 for a combined 136, while Burwash earned fourth on rides of 70 and 54 points. Reigning national champion bareback rider Tyler Berghuis accumulated 143 points for fourth place in his first outing of the 2018-19 season.

Tarleton’s Jhett Trenary partnered with Stefan Ramone of South Plains College to qualify for the team roping finals and placed seventh overall, and Kasper Blackwell of Tarleton heeled behind partner Ben Walling of Cisco College for eighth place in the event.

Both Tarleton teams travel to Alpine this weekend to compete in the Sul Ross State University rodeo.