Three hours before the start of the Friday night performance of the Gerry Fire Department’s 77th annual PRCA rodeo, things looked bleak as the area was surrounded by lightning, thunder, and pouring rain, but the skies cleared and a standing room only crowd of loyal fans were treated to another night of professional rodeo action.
One of the most exciting events was the saddle bronc riding event where Isaac Denson Richard, who traveled more than a thousand miles from his home in Eunice, Louisiana, scored 80 points on a bronc named Friendly Fire to win this event for the third straight night. Four other riders posted scores in the 60’s with another Louisiana cowboy, Shea Fornier, placing second with a 69-point ride.
The Louisiana connection continued to dominate as Owen Brouillette from St. Francisville outscored six other cowboys to win the bareback bronc event with an 83-point ride on Spots and Dots, who at 16 years old is one of the oldest broncs in rodeo competition. Grant Worthington, a college student from Ft. Scott, Kansas, placed second with 78 points on Rockstar, a Painted Pony Rodeo bronc.
Perhaps the humid air interferred with their ropes, but only two of the ten teams were successful in roping the head and heels of their steers. Zane Kilgus, Watsontown, Pennsylvania, teamed with Drew Carnes, Hornell, New York, to win the event with a time of 5.6 seconds. The team of two Indiana cowboys, Tye Casey and Jake Hawkins, had the only other qualified time at 6.7 seconds.
The Painted Pony steers seemed to have the steer wrestlers’ number this night as only four of the ten cowboys were successful in jumping from their horse and throwing the steer to the dirt. A.J. Williams, New Providence, Pennsylvania led the way with a time of 4.5 seconds while Jacob Frampton, Quarryville, Pennsylvania, was close behind with a time of 5.1 seconds.
The tie-down ropers had the closest competition of the week as three of them roped and tied their calves in under 13 seconds. Charlie Goerlach , Greenfield Center, New York, was the fastest at 12.3 seconds with Matt McKinstry, Fort Ann, New York, only a tenth of a second behind at 12.4.
The cowgirls had a tough time in the breakaway roping event as only four ladies were successful in lassoing their calves. There was a tie for the fastest time between Caybrie Clatterbuck from Berkley Springs, West Virginia, and Kelsey King, Honey Brook, Pennsylvania, as both posted a time of 4.0 seconds.
An Indiana cowgirl, Ronda Casey from Plymouth, had the fastest time in the barrel race, circling the barrels on her horse in 15.24 seconds. Jen Simas, who is the wife of rodeo announcer Greg Simas, placed second at 15.61.
“Angry” seemed to be the key word to describe the bulls as they tossed ten of the 11 cowboys to the dirt. Only Cody McCandless, Saltsburg, Pennsylvania, was successful in riding a bull named Boba Fett for the required eight seconds, scoring 82 points. This is the second night in a row that this bull has taken a cowboy to the winner’s circle with scores of 83 and 82 points. The score for the week is now bulls 30, cowboys 4.
The final performance of the 2022 rodeo kicks off tonight at 8 p.m. with a large chunk of the more than $50,000 prize money up for grabs in all eight of the rodeo events. The barbeque beef dinners will be served for the last time until next August starting at 5. The midway in open for the entire evening.
This afternoon at 4, kids, ages 3-8 can enjoy a free rodeo where they can dress up and play rodeo related games in the arena supervised by rodeo personnel. All will receive backtags and a belt buckle will be given to the best dressed little cowboy and cowgirl. Registration is at 3.
Rodeo chairman Tom Atwell expresses his thanks to all the fans for supporting this event as it is the major fund raiser for the Gerry Volunteer Fire Department which answers about 350 fire and EMS calls each year. All proceeds go to the department. He also praised the approximately 150 volunteers who make the event possible.
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