duPerier Overtakes Lockhart for No. 1 Spot

By Jolee Lautaret-Jordan
9/9/15

Pueblo, Colorado — Callie duPerier already has one WPRA World title on her resume, a Junior World Championship earned back in 2010, and she’s looking to add another one come December.

For the second time this season, the second year WPRA card holder has vaulted to the top of the WPRA World standings with just three weeks left in the 2015 regular season.

After a stellar rookie season in which she won nearly $45,000 and finished 25th in the WPRA World standings, duPerier kicked off her sophomore season with a last minute berth into the first stop on the 2015 Wrangler Champions Challenge presented by Justin Boots event in Kissimmee, Fla., back in October on the first weekend of the 2015 season.

duPerier was invited to fill in for another contestant and made the most of the chance, winning the event. It was a crucial win, setting duPerier near the top of the WPRA standings and earning her a spot on future WCC events in the winter and spring. The WCC is comprised of the top seven from the 2014 WPRA World standings along with two spots each to the current leaders on the Wrangler Million Dollar Tour as well as the WPRA World standings.

Those events have been a part of the Texas cowgirl’s success in 2015 along with a strong, consistent showing at major rodeos all season. In fact, she has placed at seven of the nine WCC stops so far including wins in Kissimmee and, most recently, Pueblo, Colo.

The Colorado State Fair in Pueblo was very kind to duPerier. Running in the final performance of the rodeo, she and her great gelding Rare Dillion finished second behind Nancy Hunter with a run of 17.62 seconds, earning $2,500.

The next night during the WCC, the pair stepped up the pace, taking the victory with a blistering 17.10 second run, the fastest not only of the WCC event but also of the entire rodeo. That win added another $5,440 to her season total. She walked away with $7,940 for the pair of runs.

With season earnings of $152,393, duPerier vaulted back over Lisa Lockhart, who had held the lead in the standings since back-to-back victories at the Calgary Stampede and Cheyenne Frontier Days in July. duPerier kept pace, winning second in Calgary and earning nearly $32,000 since the Fourth of July to retake the lead as the season hits its final month.

duPerier has certainly earned her first trip to the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas in December and she will be the first WPRA Junior World Champion to advance to the Wrangler NFR once reaching 18 years of age and buying a WPRA card. She could be joined in that historic achievement by rookie Jackie Ganter, the 2014 WPRA Junior World Champ, who is clinging to a spot inside the top 15 as the season winds to its conclusion.

With one record already in the books, duPerier is looking to go one step further and become the first WPRA Junior World Champion to win a WPRA World title in Vegas.

For more information on the Wrangler Champions Challenge presented by Justin Boots, visit www.wpra.com or www.prorodeo.com. For more information on the Colorado State Fair Rodeo, visit www.coloradostatefair.com.

Courtesy of WPRA