Tension run high for area cowboys during short round at Best of the Best

RED ROCK PARK

With lucrative jackpots on the line there were some tense moments at last Saturday’s short round performance during the Best of the Best Timed Events Rodeo.

With team roping partner Hiyo Yazzie, Rough Rock, Arizona cowboy Rance Nez felt some pressure when they entered the roping box as the high callback.

In the first round the pair won the round with the 5.91-second run they turned in. In the next round they posted a 7.02, which earned them the rodeo’s top seed going into the short round.

Unfortunately, things did not pan out the way they would have liked as Yazzie missed his first loop on the heeling side. After regrouping, the Coyote Canyon, New Mexico, cowboy roped one leg as they were clocked in at 19.20 seconds.

“We needed to be an eight,” said Nez, who called their ill-timed mishap a learning experience.

“I’ve been roping with Hiyo for a while now and things like that happen,” he said, noting that they have had a lot of success at roping events with both individuals winning a brand-new truck.

With their run in the short round, they finished sixth overall in the aggregate race by roping three draws in 32.13 seconds.

In addition to the two aforementioned cowboys, the father/daughter combo of Donovan Yazzie and Ashley Yazzie ran into bad luck on Saturday night.

They came into the short round as the high callback, catching two calves in 16.01 seconds, which included a first-place run of 6.14 seconds in the second round.

In the final performance though, the calf ran through the loop of Donovan’s attempt as they recorded a no time.

In the parent team roping, Brad Moreno and his dad John Boyd III had roped two draws in 17.65 seconds but in the short round they also posted a no time.

---