What a month March has been for the timed event contestants with The American, Timed Event Championship and BFI Week taking place. Many millions of dollars were spread around during these three prestigious events.
Erich Rogers and Paden Bray took home big dollars at The American in Arlington, Texas. That big win put them into the number one spot in the PRCA standings by quite a margin ($50,000 of their $100,000 payday counts). Erich then came up to the Cinch Timed Event Championship at the Lazy E Arena in Guthrie, Oklahoma and placed in the average with Paden assisting him as his helper (header and heeler). Erich always makes a nice showing at the CTEC.
This year the CTEC was one of the closest races I have ever seen at the prestigous event with many changes in the last three rounds of the five go-round competition with an aggregate total on 25 head of livestock. When it was all said and done, Marcus Theriot of Poplarville, Mississippi made a great showing at his fifth appearance at the CTEC. Last year he finished fifth and this year he came back strong to win the event. He was consistent in all five events and put 25 great runs together to take home the title. Paul David Tierney, a former champion of this event, came back to win reserve champion. Seth Hall finished third this year after finishing third last year which was his rookie year. Lane Karney won fourth in the average which was the best of the five California cowboys entered. California still holds the record for most wins of this prestigious event with nine titles being captured since its inception.
Briar Teague displayed some excellent cowboy talent in the Junior Ironman contest during the CTEC at the Lazy E Arena. Dan Wall and the rest of the CTEC staff did an outstanding job making sure this event cultivates contestants for the future. The McKinney family, owners of the Lazy E Arena, take great pride in the youth of America and have several events annually hosting youth and their families.
The late Leo Camarillo was the first CTEC Champion and came back to win it a second time. Leo and all the past champions were honored in a special ceremony the final night of the CTEC along with banners dropping from the ceiling showing every champion’s title years. It was a very moving ceremony. Before the short go at the the BFI, an additional tribute was also played to Leo as a past champion and a steer was released from the chute with a rope on to commemorate the past champion we recently lost to COVID. RIP, Lion.
The Cowboy Channel was on hand for all the BFI action as was the Wrangler Network. Wrangler has been a title sponsor of the BFI for many years. Dru Stewart and Amy Wilson covered many interviews for TV and Facebook. Justin McKee was also on hand all week of the CTEC, announcing the event along with me as well as doing interviews for the Cowboy Channel.
This year’s BFI Week was over the top and had over a 25% increase in events from 2020. All of the vendors saw an outstanding week with many customers doing early Christmas shopping.
Be sure to catch BFI Week and CTEC results in this issue.
At press time, we were notified that Larry Hunnicutt had passed away. Larry and his late wife Pat, were movers and shakers in the history of California team roping. They were the creators of ACTRA (originally the American Computer Team Roping Association, now known as the American Cowboys Team Roping Association) that started in the 1980’s and still flourishes today. Their Ceres Sports Arena located in Ceres, California was the major hub of team roping events for 30 plus years. Our sincere condolences to their daughter Pam and the Hunnicutt family. We hope to have more in future issues about the impact the Hunnicutt family had on team roping not only in California but nationally.