Troy Rodeo Closes Season With a Flourish

Thursday, April 14

Martin, TN

Troy University

University of Tennessee at Martin

Photo by: Troy University

4/22/2011 5:04:44 PM | Rodeo

By: Beth Brown

The Trojan rodeo team concluded its region competition last weekend at UT-Martin.

The men's and women's teams both took first place in the rodeo, with the women out-scoring the second place UT-Martin team by 200 points.

Freshman, Cody Skelton, took first place in the calf-roping event earning the team 145 points.
"I had a great run this weekend, recorded the fastest time in the event in the short go," Skelton said.

Jeb Brown and Whitney Hazouri took first in the team-roping event earning the team 150 point each, with an average of 15.4 seconds.

"I'm excited to come back next year and improve on my confidence in my events," Hazouri said. "We did great this past weekend and should've been doing this all year."

Kaley Dixon took first place in barrel racing, as well, earning the team 180 points, with an average of 26.87 seconds.

"I'm still in shock, can't believe I won the event," Dixon said. "I just had some really good runs that got me through."

Freshman Kassandra Smith won the goat-tying event, earning the team 165 points, with an average of 14 seconds.

The truly impressive finish came from freshman Lanie Culligan, who came into the season not very proficient in the breakaway roping and wound up coming away with second in Martin, earning the team 105 points, with an average of 6.9 seconds.

"Coming into college rodeo I felt that breakaway was not my strongest event, but through the year my teammates helped teach me to be a better roper," Culligan said. "Will Bradley has been great this year, helping me improve a lot with my roping skills."

Trojans coach Josh Simmons said the season-ending success bodes well for the future.

"We had a great weekend, really rallied together to win the rodeo," Simmons said. "The win for the women's and men's team was great coming from our young team heading into next season."

The team is done with regular season competition but will be sending five team members to represent Troy in the College National Finals, in Casper, Wyoming.

Stetson Aldridge will be representing the Trojans for a second year in a row after he won the Ozark Region calf roping, earning a total of 800 points throughout the year.

"I feel pretty confident about nationals, I had a pretty good competition there last year, and hopefully I'll win this year," Aldridge said.

The team roping pair of Brown and Hazouri will also be headed to Casper for the Trojans. Hazouri is very unique in this event because it is hard for a female to qualify for the nationals in team roping.

"Whitney did great this past weekend and was a big reason we were able to win and qualify for nationals," Brown said.

Cody Skelton will also be representing the Trojans in the calf roping event after his stellar performance this past weekend.

The final member of the team that will be heading to Casper is Will Bradley, who as the Ozark Region student director gets a bye into his main event, which is calf roping.

"I think we've got a good group representing us at the nationals and I'm looking forward to next year with the talent we have coming back," Simmons said.