ENMU quartet off to finals rodeo

Courtesy photo

Senior Katelyn Lide ties her goat during last fall's ENMU College Daze Rodeo at Lewis Cooper Arena. Lide will make her third trip to the College National Finals Rodeo, and first since transferring to ENMU, from June 9-15 at Casper, Wyo.

Eastern New Mexico University junior TiAda Gray would have been happy to jump right in to the College National Finals Rodeo after the Greyhounds and Zias ended the regular season in the Tarleton State rodeo on April 20.

Gray is one of four ENMU rodeoers scheduled to compete in the CNFR from June 9-15 at Casper, Wyo., and she believes she is just hitting her stride.

"The season didn't start too good," said Gray, a Tatum High graduate who will compete in breakaway roping at Casper. "I never came out with a win (during the season), but I always placed.

"I was actually roping pretty good at the end of the year. I'll just have to stay sharp."

Fifth-year ENMU coach Albert Flinn is taking his largest group so far to the CNFR. For the Hounds, junior Logan Medlin of Tatum and freshman Cade Passig of Capitan are heelers in team roping with Tarleton State partners, while the Zias are also sending junior Katelynn Lide of Odessa in goat tying.

"We had a good year," Flinn said. "The women's team came on at the end of the season and won the last two (rodeos)."

Flinn thinks his quartet is well-prepared for the nationals.

"They're coming from one of the toughest regions," he said of the Southwest Region. "The competition will be tough up there, but they'll be accustomed to it. I look for all four of them to make it to Saturday night's short go.

"They're good students, they're good individuals and, obviously, they're good rodeo athletes."

This is Gray's first trip to the CNFR, but she's had experience in national competition during high school.

"I just have to stay focused," she said.

Lide is making her third trip to the CNFR, having gone is 2010 in barrel racing and the next year in goat tying while at Odessa College.

This year, she was second in the region in goat tying.

Lide said she's not sure how much her experience will help her this time.

"I've been there before, but it's always a new experience," she said. "I have a feel for it all, but it's always different.

She wants to do well, of course, but knows how you draw with stock also plays a role.

"My goal is to do the best I can on the stock I have," Lide said. "I want to be able to keep my head about me, even if I don't do as good as I want."

In one of the twists of the sport, the two team ropers are partnered with "rivals" from another school — in this case, Tarleton.

Both are comfortable, though, having known their partners since they were little.

Medlin is pared with junior Billy Bob Brown, whom he has known since starting out in the sport at age 5 or 6.

Passig teams up with Texans senior Chase Williams, who is originally from Capitan.

"We've been friends for a long time," Medlin said of Brown. "I knew I had a good enough partner to make it (to the CNFR). I knew if we took care of business, we should make it."

Medlin and Brown moved from third to first in the region in the final two rodeos.

"It's one of the best regions in the country," said Medlin, a football and basketball standout in high school at Tatum. "I want to come out and win a national championship, and I think we have a good chance, as long as we do what we've been doing."

Passig will be looking for a new partner next school year, but said he and Williams also "try to rodeo for a living. We've both on the same page."

They finished third in the region this year.

"I was excited about making the national finals, but I wasn't surprised," Passig said. "I felt if we worked hard enough we could do it. The excitement came from accomplishing my goal."

Asked why team roping partners wouldn't simply go to the same school, Passig said he's comfortable at ENMU.

"Eastern is (relatively) close to home," he said. "I like the team, and I know a lot of people that have gone to the school."

He doesn't think he'll have a tough time finding a new partner when school is back in session in the fall.

"My primary goal is to be a college 'world' champion," he said. "That's what I'm aiming for."