Team Ropers Mitchell/Doescher Win Red Bluff Round-Up
By Tracy Renck
RED BLUFF, Calif. – Longtime friends Spencer Mitchell and Cody Doescher joined forces for the first time this season in Denver in January and now things are starting to pay off.
Team roping header Mitchell and heeler Doescher beat a star-studded field Sunday at the Red Bluff (Calif.) Round-Up, capturing the average with a 30.4-second time on four head at the ProRodeo Tour stop.
The duo clinched the title – each for the first time in their respective careers – with an 8.0-second run in the finals. They each took home $6,599.
“We had a steer that was pretty strong for the herd, and we just knew that if we made a good run, we would have a chance to win it,” said Mitchell, who turns 31 Monday. “The way it was set up there, you couldn’t do anything besides go rope whatever they drew you. Our steer was pretty strong, and shoot, I didn’t do a very good job, and he pulled off a great shot. He ended up cleaning it up and saving the run for us.”
Mitchell and Doescher came into the finals three-tenths of a second behind Kaleb Driggers and Junior Nogueira, but Doescher was focused on what he and Mitchell could accomplish.
“It’s hard to speed things up there,” Doescher said. “The barrier is long, and the steers are running, and it is hard to go fast in that kind of set-up. But we knew that if we used our horses and went and made our run, we would have a chance. My partner has such a fast head horse, and he has the reaching game on top of it, so it is the best of both worlds. I have a pretty fast heel horse, and we used our horses to our advantage.”
Mitchell, who lives in Orange Cove, Calif., was thrilled to win Red Bluff, which is a hometown rodeo for him.
“I lived about an hour from Red Bluff in a little town called Williams for quite a while,” Mitchell said. “You always want to do good at rodeos that have been close to home. To finally accomplish winning it dang-sure feels pretty good.”
Mitchell’s wife, Whitney, son, Broc, 1, father, Steve, and mother, Cyndi, saw him claim top honors at Red Bluff.
“It has been great roping with Spencer,” Doescher said. “It’s easy for us to get along because we have been friends for so long. We both have wives and kids, and we have the same idea how we want to do things.”
Doescher said his wife, Courtney, daughter, Paizley, 8, and son, Rance, 3 were at home in Webbers Falls, Okla., celebrating Easter, and he was happy to make their day even better.
“It was a little bittersweet that I didn’t get to spend Easter with my family, and we just got married in January,” Doescher said. “They support what I’m doing, and they are pulling for me back home. They were very excited I won.”
Other winners at the $292,170 rodeo were all-around cowboy Rhen Richard ($3,672, tie-down roping and team roping); bareback rider Logan Patterson (87.5 points on C5 Rodeo’s Black Feathers); steer wrestlers Stetson Jorgensen (21.8 seconds on four head); Hunter Cure (21.8 seconds on four head); saddle bronc rider Zeke Thurston (89.5 points on Rosser Rodeo’s Flood Tide); tie-down roper Dane Kissack (37.5 seconds on four head); barrel racer Nellie Miller (34.38 seconds on two head); and bull rider Trey Benton III (88 points on Bridwell Pro Rodeos’ Vegas Outlaw).
For more coverage of the Red Bluff Round-Up, check out the May 3 edition of ProRodeo Sports News.
Courtesy of PRCA