Rodeo: SandHills crowns champions in 76th rodeo

With the final performance of the 76th SandHills Stock Show and Rodeo in the books, the committee gave away some titles Saturday night at Ector County Coliseum.

In the bareback riding competition, Ty Breuer of Mandan, N.D. earned the 2009 title with an 87-point ride aboard Molly on Friday night.

In the steer wrestling, Spud Duvall of Checotah, Okla., was the last man out of the chute and he saved the best for the finale, dropping his steer to the dirt in 4.4 seconds. Combined with his 4.0-second run in the first go, Duvall earned the title by one-half second over Mickey Gee of Wichita Falls.

"This is the best start I've had to a year," Duvall said. "I've never won the first time out in the 10 years I've been rodeoing hard.

"I'm up next in Denver on Jan. 19, then go to Fort Worth, San Antonio and Houston and I'm looking forward to a good winter."

In the tie-down roping, Clint Cooper of Decatur earned the victory with a combined time of 16.1 seconds on two head. Kody Curry of Buna won the second go with a 7.6-second run, with Houston Hutto of Del Rio in second at 7.9 seconds.

Another rough stock champion was crowned when Rusty Allen's 85-point effort aboard Pine Cone held up. The Eagle Mountain, Utah cowboy bested both Chuck Schmidt (Keldron, S.D.) and Tyrell Smith (Vaughn, Mont.) by one point.

In the barrel racing, Tammy Key-Fischer of Ledbetter and Jordon Peterson of Chilton both finished two runs through the cloverleaf in 28.11 seconds to earn co-championships.

Finally, in the marquee event of the rodeo, the bull riding crown went to Austin Ambrose of Fletcher, Okla., who covered Wild Wild West for 84 points during his time in the arena. Kanin Asey of Powell, Wyo., scored 83 points on Super Freak on Saturday night.

>> All-around winner: Vin Fisher Jr. of Andrews took the all-around cowboy title by winning $4,859.24 while competing in tie-down roping and steer roping.

>> Speed demons: The ladies in the barrel racing decided to put on a show on closing night, moving three into the top 10, including a new leader.

First, Tiffany Fox of Fox, Okla., navigated the cloverleaf in 14.04 seconds to move into third in the second go.

She stayed there exactly 14.01 seconds, which is the amount of time it took Terra Bynum of Colorado City to make two rights and a left.

Both those runs, and all the rest of the runs in the rodeo, paled in comparison to Cassie Moseley's effort later in the round. The Farwell native blasted through the pattern in 13.90 seconds to take the second go and move up to third in the average.

>> Tough night: The 10 teams that left the chutes in team roping had a tough night, with just two clean runs out of the group.

Having troubles were JoJo Lemond of Andrews and his partner, Randon Adams. Lemond caught the head, but just one heel was caught for a five-second penalty and a 9.5-second run. A clean run would have won the second go.

Speed Williams, an eight-time world champion header, and heeler Clay O'Brien, a seven-time world champ, came up with a no-time run when the heeling loop failed to find its mark.