The 2023 SandHills Stock Show and Rodeo reached its halfway point in front of a pack house Saturday at the Ector County Coliseum.
The raucous crowd saw some strong performances as leaderboards changed throughout the night.
T Parker of Winnie opened the third performance with a bang, staying aboard Venom for the required eight seconds to earn an 81-point marking that vaulted him to the top of the bull riding standings.
Jesse Hopper (80) and Dawson Keith Gleaves (79) sit second and third after competing earlier in the week.
Jayco Roper of Oktaha, Okla., made his move to the top of the bareback charts when he spurred Table Top to an 81-point ride, while Tanner Fine, of Pomona, Kan., scored 78.5 points aboard Satin Doll to move into third.
Jacobs Crawley of Stephenville took over the lead in the saddle bronc event thanks to a reride.
After his first bronc, Bad Idea, didn’t perform as expected, Crawley opted for a second nod in the chutes and made the most of it, scoring 84 points to take a three-point lead over Leon Fountain, with Weston Patterson third with 80 points.
Crawley, the 2015 PRCA world champion, is a two-time winner (2016, 2017) at SandHills.
Sahi Schaefer of Lake Creek jumped into the lead in Ladies Breakaway with a 1.80-second run, just ahead of Brandi McDowell’s 1.90 run.
Chet Weitz of London (Tx.) moved into second in the Tie-Down roping with an 8.4 second effort, three-tenths behind leader Bryson Sechrist.
Laramie Warren of Adair, Okla., moved up the steer wrestling charts, falling off his horse and flipping the steer to the ground in 4.2 seconds to elicit a roar from the crowd.
The biggest shakeup came in Barrel Racing, where the top three spots switched in mere seconds.
Chloe Gray of Yatesville, Ga., took the lead with 14.02-second run to kick off the go-round and move into first — for less than 30 seconds.
Steely Steiner of Oakley, Utah, next up in the order, raced through the cloverleaf in 13.90 seconds to take over the top spot.
Fallon Forbes of O’Donnell the matched Steiner’s run midway through the round to completely reset the top times.
The fourth performance begins at 7:30 p.m. Thursday.
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