Two Mesalands athletes win titles at rodeos

Two Mesalands Community College athletes captured titles during two Grand Canyon Region intercollegiate rodeos Friday and Saturday at the Quay County Fairgrounds arena in Tucumcari.

The Stampede's Brady Schlesinger of Alberta, Canada, earned a 59 score on Friday and a 65 on Saturday during the bareback bronc riding competition to win the top-average title.

In the bullriding competition on Saturday, Mesalands athlete Tyler Villarreal of North Dakota was the only entrant to log a successful ride, scoring an 82. He won the top-average title by surpassing Friday's top score, which was in the 70s.

Villarreal said his ride Saturday had an ominous start.

"That first jump was really weird. I felt like I was in a really bad spot," he said. "But then he just sort of jumped back underneath me, and I was thinking about gathering him back up. It worked out really well."

Though Schlesinger didn't log the top bareback score Saturday - other entrants earned a 77 and a 67 - he didn't need much to capture the top-average title over the two days.

"I just knew what I had to do," Schlesinger said of his mind-set before getting on the horse. "I had to beat the one kid (Friday) that rode before me."

Other schools competing at the rodeos were New Mexico State University, Central Arizona College, Dine College, Cochise College, Navajo Technical University and the University of Arizona.

Mesalands coach Matt Hughes said he liked the effort he saw from his Stampede athletes over the weekend.

"My biggest thing is the amount of 'try' they put out," he said. "I don't think anybody didn't succeed because they didn't try, because they didn't give it what they had."

Dine College in Tsaile, Arizona, was supposed to host one of this season's Grand Canyon Region rodeos.

But the area lost its ambulance service, and the college was forced to cancel.

"In turn, that puts our region with only nine rodeos when every other region in the nation has 10," Hughes explained. "To give these kids the 10th rodeo they need for points, we picked up another rodeo."

One thing that pleased Hughes was both rodeos each were completed in less than two hours. He said his goal is to get each finished in a little over two hours.

He gave a lot of the credit to his Stampede team members, who play a vital role in the rodeos' brisk paces.

"The team that I've got is on it," he said. "They're probably the hardest-working kids that I've ever had. It was a fast pace, but there wasn't a single hangup. It all goes to the contractor we hired this year and the students, because they do all the work."