Friday, Dec. 10, 2004 | 9:39 a.m.
SUN WIRE REPORTS
Team ropers Clay Tryan of Billings, Mont., and Michael Jones of Stephenville, Texas, barely missed the arena record Wednesday en route to winning Round 6 at the 46th Wrangler National Finals Rodeo.
They were just a little quicker Thursday in front of 17,606 fans, eclipsing the record and winning another round. Tryan and Jones roped their Round 7 steer in 3.7 seconds, the fastest of the more than 2,900 team roping runs in the Thomas & Mack Center since the Wrangler NFR moved to Las Vegas in 1985.
The record time was previously 3.8 seconds, which was recorded by five teams, most recently by Daniel Green and Kory Koontz in 2003. The mark also was matched twice at the 2002 Wrangler NFR.
In two nights, each roper has won nearly $30,000, sending them into sixth place in the heading and heeling standings, respectively, and rejuvenating their hopes at a world title. With three rounds remaining, Tryan and Jones still trail leaders David Key of Caldwell, Texas, and seven-time world champion Clay O'Brien Cooper of Glen Rose, Texas, by some $26,000 and $34,000, respectively. But Tryan and Jones are second in the lucrative aggregate race, which is awarded at the end of the Wrangler NFR on Sunday. That alone is worth more than $30,000 if they maintain that position.
"If you can have the arena record here, it is pretty good. It's a pretty important record to have," Jones said. "We didn't think that the steer was going to be that fast. Clay did a great job."
"The plan now is to go as far as we can go," Tryan said.
The Wrangler NFR, which is marking its 20th year in Las Vegas, is the world's premier rodeo. Only the top 15 contestants in each of rodeo's events qualified for the event, which will crown world champions based on annual earnings in the Jack Daniel's World Standings on Sunday.
Competition resumes at 7 p.m. today with Round 8.
Tryan was one of four Montana cowboys to win rounds Thursday. Bareback rider Larry Sandvick of Billings, Mont., competing in his 12th Wrangler NFR, scored 87.5 points on Sutton Rodeo's Royal River. Bull rider Cody Buller of Glendive, Mont., moved into third place in the world standings after his 89-point ride on Korkow Rodeo's Action Cat Dip. Steer wrestler Ivan Teigen of Capitol, Mont., turfed his Round 7 steer in 3.3 seconds to win the round and earn a $14,778 first-place check.
Other Round 7 winners were bareback rider Cody DeMoss of Crowville, La., 83.5 points on Korkow Rodeo's Little Vegas; tie-down roper Stran Smith of Childress, Texas, 7.2 seconds; and barrel racer Jackie Dube, Giddings, Texas, 13.88 seconds.
Smith's victory, his second of the Wrangler NFR, helped him open up an $18,000 lead on regular-season standings leader Blair Burk of Durant, Okla.
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