Rodeo Opens Season With Wins at Colby CC

COLBY, Kan. – Tyler Griffin and Hannah Giger each took home event championships to help the men's team take the top spot while the women were second at the season-opening Colby CC Rodeo in Colby, Kan.
 
Griffin picked up his event title in the bareback riding where he opened the event with an 83 and followed that up with an 82 in the finals to take the3 round and the average.
 
Giger on the other hand opened her breakaway run with a 2.7 in the first round to split 8^th/9^th/10^th, but came back in the short go with a 2.4 to win the round and move to the top spot in the average.
 
Back in the bareback competition, Luke Thrash challenged his teammate, first posting an 82 to finish second in the opening round before carding a 71 in the short go which was good for second in the round and second in the average.
 
Josh Green also advanced to the finals in the bareback with an opening score of 82, but was unable to make the horn in the finals, suffering an injury and a no time.
 
Hayden Harris turned in a second-place performance in the bull riding as one of just two riders to make the eight-second count, doing so in the first round with a score of 76.5. Neither rider would post a score in the finals, leaving him second in the average as well.
 
In the tie down roping, McKade Wickett posted a 10.6 to open the weekend placing ninth in the long go, but would come back with a 9.1 in the finals which would win the short go and lift him to second in the average.
 
Gus Franzen's time of 8.6 would win the long go in the tie down though, however a 13.5 in the finals would be good for fourth in the round and drop him to fourth in the average.
 
Mason Couch opened his steer wrestling season with a run of 4.8 which split sixth-place in the long go. He would post a matching 4.8 in the finals which was good for fourth in the round and lifted him to fourth in the average.
 
Bryan Moreno rounded out the Storm men to earn points, doing so in the saddle bronc where he posted a 71 to split 4^th/5^th/6^th.
 
On the women's side, two others would join Giger in advancing to the finals of the breakaway.
 
Jillian Pressley did so with a 2.2 run which split first-place in the opening round, but would suffer a no time in the finals to slip to sixth place in the average.
 
Mataya Eklund was right behind with a 2.4 to open the breakaway competition, splitting 3^rd/4^th/5^th, but a no time in the long go would slip her to 7^th/8^th in the average.
 
Martie Shockley would post a 6.7 to open the goat tying by finishing second in the long go, and followed it with a 7.5 in the finals which was good for fifth in the round and fourth overall in the average.
 
Eklund added a 16.57 run in the barrel racing which was good for 10^th in the round, and she followed it with a finals run of 16.64 in the finals which was seventh in the round and moved her to ninth in the average.
 
Southeastern will be back in action when it comes home to host the Southeastern Stampede Sept. 30-through-Oct. 2 in Durant, Okla.