CLARENDON, Texas – Led by a couple of event victories and several other top placings, the Clarendon College men’s rodeo team won its home event this past weekend.

“We had a lot of people step up and do good for us, and that’s what it takes to win in our region,” Clarendon College rodeo coach Bret Franks said. “I think the Southwest Region is the toughest in college rodeo, so any time you can win in this region, it’s a big deal.

“Winning at home makes it even better.”

Sam Petersen of Helena, Montana, won the bareback riding title, scoring 82 points to win the first round and 77 points to finish second in the championship round. His two-ride cumulative score of 159 points was good enough to claim the overall title. Petersen is now in second place in the Southwest Region’s bareback riding standings.

Fellow bareback rider Weston Patterson finished fifth in the first round and also placed in fourth in steer wrestling. He earned two spots in the short round but was unable to finish because he was in a battle for the saddle bronc riding title in ProRodeo’s Prairie Circuit, which had its finals this past weekend. Patterson finished the season as the circuit’s champion and will advance at the national circuit finals rodeo, called the NFR Open, in July.

“When you have pro athletes that are competing at the college level, you realize they have some goals they want to meet,” Franks said. “This was a good opportunity for Weston to win a PRCA championship and set himself up good for next season, and I didn’t want him to miss out on that.

“I was worried our chances to win this weekend would be hurt by him not being here for the short-round, but everybody else stepped up big and helped us pull through.”

Dylan Hancock of Golconda, Illinois, also walked away with a title, scoring 159 cumulative points to win saddle bronc riding. He was 75 points in the long round to advance to the short go-round, where he had the highest-marked ride of the rodeo, an 84, to win the final round and the average title.

Teammate Slade Keith of Stanfield, Arizona, won the first round and finished in a tie for second in the championship round; he finished second, just a point behind Hancock in the aggregate. With the points he earned in Clarendon, Keith moved regional lead in the saddle bronc riding standings.

“I was really proud of how many kids we had in the short round,” Franks said, noting that bull rider Hadley Miller of Boyd, Texas, competed in the final round but didn’t place. “I think it says something to see that many black vests in the short-go at our hometown rodeo.”

For the women, Quincy Sullivan of Peralta, New Mexico, stopped the clock in 2.3 seconds to finish as the runner-up in the first round of breakaway roping. She placed fifth in the final round and finished fourth overall. She is eighth in the regional standings.

The Bulldogs men finished with 495 points to outlast Southwest Region leader Western Texas College. That helped Clarendon College move up to third place in the Southwest Region with seven events remaining on the 2022-23 schedule.

“We’ve made some good strides, but we need to keep putting ourselves in position at every rodeo if we want to win the region,” Franks said. “I think we have the ability to do that.”