Walker clinches barrel racing gold in ninth round

Professional rodeo saluted its first 2012 world champion on Friday night in Las Vegas.

First-time Wrangler National Finals Rodeo starter Mary Walker clinched the barrel racing gold buckle after cashing second in the ninth round to boost her income for the year to $233,301.

It didn’t hurt that Florida teenager Kelly Bass knocked down her first barrel of the week and dropped to fourth in the aggregate chase. That moved Walker up to second in total time on nine runs.

The ninth round was a bit of a demolition derby again with eight girls knocking down barrels, including Canada’s Lindsay Sears and Red Deer-born Texan Carlee Pierce.

Three-time Canadian champion Lisa Lockhart, from Oelrichs, S.D., won the last round with a time of 13.66 seconds. She’s put together a $136,000 season, is third in total time and could add another $50,000 to her total today.

Walker isn’t finished either.

There is still another $67,000 still on the table, as well as the top gun award which goes to WNFR’s top money winner in one event. It comes with a new Dodge Truck and a commemorative rifle and buckle.

Outside of the world all-around championship, clinched by rodeo’s poster cowboy Trevor Brazile halfway through the WNFR, all of the remaining world championships are still up for grabs.

The saddle bronc riding race tightened up during the penultimate round of the $1.6 million showcase of rodeo.

Reigning world champion and former Canadian champion Taos Muncy won the round with an 84-point score on High River stock contractor Wayne Vold’s highly-decorated outlaw Awesome.

But, he went into the ninth of the 10 rounds well down at 10th in the average.

The guys who made the action exciting were Louisiana’s Cody DeMoss and Utah standings leader Jesse Wright.

DeMoss led the aggregate going in and held onto it with a secondbest score of 83 points, his ninth score in nine rounds and the only bronc rider who has ridden all of his horses.

Wright didn’t place with a score of 75.5 points.

The bronc riders were challenged by the eliminators, a pen of out of line bucking horses that most guys will turn out during the regular season. Only three cowboys out of 15 made the eight-second whistle the first time the pen was out.

They improved in the ninth round; nine of the 15 got to the horn.

They finally broke the seven-second barrier in the calf roping.

Texan Bradley Bynum and Utah Clint Robinson, a former Canadian champion, split first in the ninth round with matching times of 6.9 seconds.

At the top end of the standings, defending world champion Texan Tuf Cooper closed in on a second title with a time of 7.2 seconds. His main rival, Justin Cass, was nine-seconds even.

Nothing was settled in the bareback riding and steer wrestling

Bareback riding leader Kaycee Feild and his nearest rival, Will Lowe, posted identical scores of 76.5.

Field has the advantage going into tonight’s closing round. Basically, all he has to do is finish off an eight-second ride — no matter what the score is — and the buckle is his for the second year in a row.

In the steer wrestling, Utah’s Tom Lewis, from Utah, was the only bulldogger mathematically out of the title hunt. But, he won the ninth round with a time of 3.5 seconds.

Les Shepperson still leads the aggregate, despite a 9.4 second run.

He and guys like Luke Branquinho and Casey Martins, all at the top end of the standings, were out of the money.

Shepperson has thrown nine steers in 44 seconds and Martin 45.2. Branquinho, seeking his second straight title and the current standings leader, is seventh in the aggregate.

Brazile’s chance of capturing the team roping headers buckle were again diminished in round nine when he took no time.

There was only one score in the bull riding and the race for the title remains squeaky tight between J.W. Harris and Cody Teel.