SIKESTON — When it was all over, it came down to Cody Buller and Joe Mealing.
Buller, from Glendive, Mon., and his competitor, Mealing, a native of Pendelton, Ore., were the only cowboys who were able to score Wednesday night in the bull riding event during the first round of the 55th Annual Sikeston Jaycee Bootheel Rodeo at the Sikeston Rodeo Grounds.
Sixteen cowboys tried their luck to accumulate points on 16 different bulls, but 14 of them came away with nothing more than a goose egg on the scoreboard.
Buller, who was the rider of Roan Wolf, and Mealing, who sat atop Black Cloud, battled it out until Buller’s total of 87 points bested Mealing’s score of 81 points.
“My main focus was to stay on and get a qualified ride,” said Buller, who has been involved in the event of bull riding for more than a decade. “I actually had that bull (Roan Wolf) two years ago at the national finals. But when I rode him back then, I didn’t ride him too well.”
“Every time I show up, I try to compete at the best of my ability and do every thing I can,” said Mealing. “There are a lot of variables in rodeo because you have the stock and the judges. You can’t control that. I just worry about what I can do and that is to do my best every time. If I do my job right, then I’ve stayed on top for eight seconds.”
In all riding events, three judges award up to 50 points to the cowboy and up to 50 points to the animal, either a horse or a bull. A perfect score is 100. Each night, different competitors have the opportunity to score more points than the leader from the previous night. The competitor with the highest point-total after the fourth night is the champion of the event.
In roping, steer wrestling and barrel racing the fastest time wins.
“At these pro rodeos, some of the time we’ll know what bull we’re riding a couple of days a head of time. So, then, either we know them (the bull) because we have seen them or we can call some of our buddies who have experience riding the animal,” Mealing said.
“I wanted to see what bull I had before I came here. When I found out it was him, I bought a plane ticket and came over,” Buller said.
Mealing believes the access to prior information can have an effect on the outcome of the ride.
“Some bulls fit your style and some bulls don’t,” Mealing said. “My style isn’t really too fancy. I try to be effective and stay on.”
In Buller’s case Wednesday night, the cowboy tamed the bull. However, that’s not always the case.
“At the national finals, he (Roan Wolf) started really good, but then he started to go down into the well and jumped out of it. He scattered around for a while and, then decided to turn back. I was hanging on and it wasn’t very pretty,” Buller said.
No matter how long a cowboy has been involved in pro rodeo, he is always concerned about his safety.
“It’s definitely a dangerous sport. We’re putting a 150- or a 170-pound guy up against a bull that weighs anywhere between 1,500 and 2,000 pounds,” Mealing said. There’s always a danger factor. It’s definitely there, but it’s something that we realize when we come into the sport and it’s something we’ve done for a long time.”
Buller said one of the biggest key factors is the element of surprise.
“You never know what’s going to happen, really, until the gate opens,” Buller said. “There is no set pattern that the animal is going to do. The bulls have minds of their own. So, you have to be ready for anything,” Buller said.
The Sikeston Jaycee Bootheel Rodeo is a Pro Rodeo Cowboys Association- sanctioned event. More than 430 competitors will be vying for more than $100,000 in prize money.
In bareback riding, Jason Havens, of Prineville, Ore., rode High Country to a victory with the top score of 85 points. His closest competition came from Silas Richard, of San Augustine, Tex., who accumuled 80 points to finish second.
Tyler Corrington, of Hastings, Mont., was awarded 81 points as he topped a nine-rider field in saddle bronc. Corrington rode Ghost Town to the victory. J.J. Elshere, of Quinn, S.D.,, Bille Sutton, of Burke, S.D., and Kyle Whitaker, of Chamber, Neb., forged a three-way tie for second place with 79 points.
Bob Loosenort, of Hazel, Ky., wrestled a steer to the ground in 4.3 seconds to win that event. Whitaker (13.4 seconds) was the only other cowboy to record a time during the competition.
Daleville. Miss., resident Jarrod Seale needed 9.1 seconds to score a victory in tie-down roping. Whitaker, who was the only cowboy to finish second in at least two events, added a second-place effort with a 10.2-second tie-down roping performance.
In team roping, Justin Lovell, of Grapeland, Texas, and Nick Simmons, of Colcord, Okla., had the fastest time with 5.8 seconds. The second-place pair was Cody Odell, of Brashear, Tex., and Twister Cain, of Gonzales, Tex., with a time of 6.4 seconds.
The most hotly-contested event of the night was barrel racing, where a Missouri native, Beth Van der Geest, of Carthage, won that event in 16.94 seconds. Her winning time was 0.02 seconds faster than Jeanne Anderson, of White City, Kan., and 0.04 seconds quicker that Erica Conrade, of Cabot, Ark. The second round of the Sikeston Jaycee Bootheel Rodeo will take place at 7 p.m. today at the Sikeston Rodeo Grounds.
