CNRA

New leaders emerge on final night of Diné College Rodeo

TSAILE

The final performance of the Diné College Rodeo saw some new leaders emerge at the Central Navajo Rodeo Association sanctioned rodeo on Saturday night.

In the #9 team roping, Henry Benally Jr. and Larrison Kayonnie put together a 6.29 run and topped the 6.40 run turned in by Destree Yazzie and Mathius Lee. The Yazzie/Lee team posted their run in last Friday’s performance.

“Henry gave me a great handle,” Kayonnie said. “He gave me a good hop.”

Going into Saturday night’s performance, the Rough Rock High senior said they didn’t think twice about the draws as some steers were considered “pups” — those steers tend to drag a little bit as they are being pulled.

“It didn’t matter what steer we had,” Kayonnie said. “We just reacted to it and I got a good shot.”

In Friday’s performance, the roping combo of Yazzie/Lee drew a pup so as the team’s heeler, Lee said he had to find his “spacing.”

“I knew that Destree was going to put it on real quick so I knew I had to have my spacing to get a clear shot,” Lee said.

With their steer being a pup, Yazzie said it was important to not pull it too hard.

“Some of them can be real soggy so if you jerk them down, they’ll just lay down,” he said. “It wasn’t the best head loop but I just tried to handle it the best I could for Mathius. He’s a good heeler and I just tried to keep the steer on its feet.”

Adam Gorman and Donald Tsosie were two other cowboys that gained the top spot on Saturday night.

Gorman won the steer wrestling with a 5.80 effort as he bested the time of 16.46 turned in by Matt Jodie, who ran his steer last Friday night.

“That was the third time I drew that steer and that was the first time I caught him,” Gorman said.

In his two previous tries, Gorman said he got outrun, but his setup was perfect on his third try.

“I think it was rust,” he said of earlier tries.

Tsosie, meanwhile, turned in a 9.72 run in the tie-down and won that event by a large margin.

“Everything went (well) except for my flanking,” Tsosie said. “My flanking went away from me but I kept with it. Everything worked out at the end. I didn’t think I ran a 9 because I thought it was an 11.”

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