Friday, March 29, 2024

Arizona High School Rodeo

Three area contestants vying for state title

WINDOW ROCK

With the Arizona High School Rodeo Association concluding its regular season this weekend, three area contestants are hoping to lock up a championship title.

The three-round state finals will begin with today’s slack performance and it will end on Saturday afternoon at the Payson Event Center with Ramon Curley, Faith Holyan and Bryan Moreno leading their respective races.

“I’m hoping that I can do the same thing I did last year,” recent Ganado High graduate Ramon Curley said.

At last year’s state finals, Curley won the average race in the bull riding event by placing first in all three rounds and finished as the year-end champion. Later that year, he covered all of his bull at the National High School Finals Rodeo in Gillette, Wyo., and finished as the reserve champion.

“I had a good year and that was just another achievement,” Curley said.

Heading into this year’s finals, Curley is leading the event with 58.50 points, which included wins at Prescott, Wilcox, Buckeye and Wickenburg rodeos. Flagstaff cowboy Wyatt Nez is sitting second with 39.50 points.

“I’m feeling confident,” said Curley, who added that he recently won the Gary Hardt Memorial Rodeo, a PRCA-sanctioned rodeo, with an 86.5-point ride in Payson.

Holyan, meanwhile, is holding a two-point edge over Gilbert, Ariz., cowgirl Blythe Beshears in the breakaway event.

“I am winning state but it’s too close,” Holyan said.

The Coyote Canyon, N.M. cowgirl gained some ground during the Wilcox and Safford rodeos earlier this year as she won the average race in Wilcox.

“Those two rodeos put me in the hunt,” Holyan said.


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About The Author

Quentin Jodie

Quentin Jodie is the Sports Editor for the Navajo Times. He started working for the Navajo Times in February 2010 and was promoted to the Sports Editor position at the end of summer in 2012. Previously, he wrote for the Gallup Independent. Reach him at qjodie@navajotimes.com

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