Ganado breakaway roper stays in contention for INFR world title

LAS VEGAS, Nev.

In her best showing every, Ganado breakaway roper Taniah Nez stayed the course by turning a solid 3.16 effort in the third round of the 43rd Annual Indian National Finals Rodeo.

In Friday night’s performance, Nez finished in a two-way tie for sixth place at the South Point Equestrian Center in Las Vegas.

She leads the average race by a mere 1.02 seconds over Faith Holyan going into the final round of the INFR with tonight’s performance set to start a 6:30 p.m.

To steady her nerves, Nez said she stayed in the back of the arena until it was her turn to compete.

“I didn’t want to get nervous so I didn’t watch any of the other runs,” she said. “All I had to worry about was getting out clean.”

By doing her homework, Nez knew her draw was going to veer to the left so she waited for that calf to make its move.

“I waited for him to turn left and I delivered,” she said.

Nez treated her run on Friday night as “another practice run.”

“I treated it like that because I didn’t want to take any dumb shots,” she said. “I already knew what I needed to do and I just stayed aggressive.”

With an aggregate of 8.71 seconds, she enters Saturday’s round as the high callback with Holyan trailing behind at 9.73.

In the tie-down event, the margin for error dwindled somewhat for Donovan Yazzie, the defending world champion.

The Coyote Canyon, N.M. cowboy didn’t skip a beat, as he turned in another routine run with a 9.18 effort. He placed fourth overall behind three other cowboys who tied their draws in the eight-second range.

His run, however, gives him some breathing room leading up to tonight’s final performance of the INFR. Yazzie leads the average race with a 28.74 aggregate with second high callback Blair Burk trailing nearly four seconds back with a 32.59 aggregate on three runs.

Kenny Glasses is a close third with a 32.95 ahead of Nolan Conway (33.53) and Mike Holyan (34.28).

In the rough stock event, Delvecchio Kaye and Creighton Curley gained substantial leads in their respective events with Kaye leading the bareback aggregate race by a whopping 18 points.

Kaye rode Livermore Knights for 87 points as he won his second consecutive go-round buckle. His ride on Friday night pushes his INFR total to 251 points. Jacoby Johns comes in next with 233 points followed by Justin Randle (230) and Earl Tsosie Jr. (222)

Curley, meanwhile, saw his 14-point advantage grow to 19 points after finishing in a two-way tie for fourth place in the third performance.

The Allentown, Arizona scored an 81-point ride on Salt, a horse owned by Bar C5.

“It was pretty big,” Curley said of covering his horse. “I wanted to ride three of my horses to stay first in the average.”

Going into tonight’s final round, Curley has accumulated 253 points in his second INFR qualification. Second high call back Kaden Deal posted a 76-point ride for a 234 aggregate.

In the team roping, Myles John moved one step closer at his first world title by placing fifth in the round with heading partner Edward Hawley. The pair turned in a 5.89 run as that effort gives them a 16.24 aggregate heading into tonight’s round.

Second high callback Nolan Conway and Spider Ramone roped three draws in 20.38 seconds.

In the bull riding, first round winner Troy Tuni regained the lead in the average as he turned in an 87-point effort aboard Snot Rocket.

In the second round, Tuni was bucked off but he redeemed himself with his first place ride on Friday.

Tuni leads the aggregate race with 174 points while Winslow High senior Latrell Long dropped to second with 157 points. In the third round, Long did not make the eight-second whistle.

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