Mary Walker Wins Fort Worth Super Shootout® 4th Consecutive Year
by Johna Cravens
for the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo
FORT WORTH, Texas — The Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo introduced the team tournament-style Fort Worth Super Shootout®, presented by Schaefer, in 2014. For the fourth year in a row Mary Walker of Ennis, Texas, and her horse Latte earned the $10,000 champion’s paycheck in barrel racing.
Walker, the 2012 Women’s Professional Rodeo Association (WPRA) World Champion, and Latte (registered name Perculatin) love competing in Will Rogers Coliseum.
“It’s hometown for us – we’re 45 minutes away,” she said, adding that Latte gets to stay in his home stall most of the day. “It’s amazing, I feel lucky in Fort Worth.”
“On the way over here I thought, there’s no way it could happen again,” Walker said. “But, that’s what I said last year. Dakota (Eldridge who won the $10,000 in steer wrestling) and I are headed to Denver tomorrow morning. I told him at least we’ll have lunch money.”
The tournament-style event requires two runs – one in the qualifying round to be among the top four and move on to the championship round and another run less than 30 minutes later for the $10,000 championship. That makes Walker’s four-year streak even more remarkable.
Walker had the fastest time in the qualifying round – a 17.064 which let her run first and have the best ground conditions in the finals. Her time in the finals was 17.077, 13 one-hundredths of a second faster than her first run. Walker was part of the team representing the Rodeo Houston.
Thursday’s event featured champions from each of eight legendary rodeos, including Cheyenne Frontier Days, the Calgary Stampede, Rodeo Houston, the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo, the San Angelo Stock Show & Rodeo, Rodeo Austin, the National Western Stock Show & Rodeo in Denver, Colo., and the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo®. The champions competed in bareback bronc riding, steer wrestling, saddle bronc riding, barrel racing and bull riding in a tournament format with each rodeo’s team wearing the same colored shirt for easy identification.
First, eight contestants competed in each event, with the top four qualifying for a second round where the winner received a briefcase with $10,000 cash inside. Many of the contestants were current or former world champions and National Finals Rodeo qualifiers and the livestock was among the elite in pro rodeo.
For the third year in a row, Rodeo Houston won the team championship. This year’s win was on the strength of two event winners – Walker and Eldridge.
Eldridge’s time of 5.19 seconds in the first round slipped him into the shootout round in fourth place. He was the first steer wrestler to compete and stopped the clock in 3.76 seconds.
Newly crowned world champion bareback rider Tim O’Connell, riding for Fort Worth, got the crowd off to a rollicking start when he scored 89.5 points on Korkow Pro Rodeo’s Onion Ring to win the bareback riding for the home team.
Former saddle bronc riding world champion Jacobs Crawley earned an event title for Cheyenne with an 88-point effort on Stace Smith Pro Rodeo’s Resistol’s Top Hat. He edged his younger brother Sterling, who rode for the San Angelo team, by a single point.
Oregon cowboy Cody Campbell, riding for Denver, was the only bull rider to stay on for the full eight seconds. He scored 91 points on Andrews Rodeo’s Hard Knox.
Officials from the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo® presented each champion with a beautiful hand-tooled briefcase containing $10,000 cash immediately after his or her winning ride or run.
The winning team from Rodeo Houston each received an additional $1,000 and even those cowboys and cowgirls who did not make the championship round received $500 each.
The World’s Original Indoor Rodeo begins its 29-performance run at 7:30 p.m. Friday in Will Rogers Coliseum.
Results from the Fort Worth Super Shootout® presented by Schaefer, Thursday, January 19, 2017, at Will Rogers Coliseum:
Bareback riding: 1, Tim O’Connell, Zwingle, Iowa, 89.5 points on Korkow Rodeo’s Onion Ring, $10,000. 2, Orin Larsen, Ingles, Manitoba, Team San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo, 89 $4,000. 3, Winn Ratliff, Leesville, La., Team Rodeo Austin, 85.5, $2,000. 4. Jake Vold, Panoka, Alberta, Team San Angelo Stock Show & Rodeo.
Steer Wrestling: 1, Dakota Eldridge, Elko, Nev., Team Rodeo Houston, 3.76 seconds, $10,000. 2, Baylor Roche, Tremonton, Utah, Team National Western Stock Show & Rodeo, 4.16, $4,000. 3, K.C. Jones, Decatur, Texas, Team San Angelo Stock Show & Rodeo, 4.98, $2,000. 4, Jason Thomas, Benton, Ark., Team San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo, 5.61, $1,000.
Saddle Bronc Riding: 1, Jacobs Crawley, Boerne, Texas, Team Cheyenne Frontier Days, 88 points on Stace Smith Pro Rodeo’s Resistol’s Top Hat, $10,000. 2, Sterling Crawley, Stephenville, Texas, Team San Angelo Stock Show & Rodeo, 87, $4,000. 3, Jesse Wright, Milford, Utah, Team Calgary Stampede, 84, $2,000. 4, Clay Elliott, Nanton, Alberta, Team Rodeo Houston, 83, $1,000.
Barrel Racing: 1, Mary Walker, Ennis, Texas, Team Rodeo Houston, 17.077 seconds, $10,000. 2, Shelby Herrmann, Orange Grove, Texas, Team National Western Stock Show & Rodeo, 17.225, $4,000. 3, Mary Burger, Team Calgary Stampede 17.234 $2,000. 4, Tillar Murray, Fort Worth, Texas, Team Cheyenne Frontier Days, 17.548, $1,000.
Bull Riding: (one qualified ride in short round)1, Cody Campbell, Summerville, Ore., Team National Western Stock Show & Rodeo, 91 points on Andrews Rodeo’s Hard Knox. $10,000. (2nd – 4th placings awarded for how long the cowboy rode)2. J.W. Harris, Mullin, Texas, Team San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo, 4.86 seconds, $4,000. 3. Dustin Bowen, Waller, Texas, Team San Angelo Stock Show & Rodeo, 2.07 seconds, $2,000. 4. Roscoe Jarboe, New Plymouth, Idaho, Team Cheyenne Frontier Days, 1.79 seconds, $1,000.
Team Champion – Rodeo Houston, Houston, Texas
Team members Will Lowe (bareback riding); Dakota Eldridge (steer wrestling); Clay Elliott, (saddle bronc riding); Mary Walker (barrel racing) and Aaron Pass (bull riding) each received a $1,000 team bonus.