Locals make short round list

RED ROCK PARK

For a first time participant, Callie Edgewater exceeded her expectation.

The Greasewood, Arizona, cowgirl participated in her first high school rodeo at the Pinnacle Bank Best of the Best Timed Event Rodeo held June 22-25 at Red Rock Park.

“This was my first year here so I wanted to make a couple of good runs and make short round,” Edgewater said.

With a pair of runs in the 16-second mark, the soon-to-be Ganado sophomore was one of 12 barrel racers to make last Saturday’s short round performance. The rodeo started out with 46 barrel racers before that list was whittled down to the short round qualifiers.

In her final run, Edgewater recorded a 16.881 run, which was one-tenth slower than the fastest run she turned during the four-day rodeo.

“It wasn’t my fastest but I felt that we did the best we could,” said Edgewater while giving kudos to her horse Trinity.

Based on her results, Edgewater is thinking about taking that leap and joining the Arizona High School Rodeo Association in the fall.

“I wanted to see how I competed with these girls and I liked what I saw,” she said.

Asked why she hadn’t joined one of the largest rodeo organizations, Edgewater said she had a busy schedule with the other rodeo associations she participates in.

Five other locals also made the short round performance, including a pair of team roping teams.

Erik Becenti and Hiyo Yazzie entered the final performance as the 11th high call back team after turning in two runs in 20.89 seconds that included a five-second penalty in their second round run.

“I’m happy that we got to experience this,” said Becenti, who is headed to Navajo Technical College in August to follow his older brother’s footstep.

“The competition was good and it did open up,” Becenti said.

In the final round, they posted a no time, as his heeling partner had some tough luck on his end.

“I got a little excited and I jumped the gun,” said Yazzie, who has two years of eligibility left.

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