ProRodeo Sports News - June 26, 2020

Ward’s sister.

65 Cowboys were up against 65- mph wind gusts during morning slack of the Woodward Elks Rodeo, June 10. 586 The number of ProRodeo ath- letes entered for the 2020 Woodward Elks Rodeo.

“She came down in October (2019), and we were married a month later,” Hawkins said. “It was love at first sight.” Hawkins is a two-time qualifier for the Wrangler NFR (2013 and 2018) with nearly $500,000 in career earnings since his rookie year in 2011. “A third qualification is more exciting than a first, so I’m extremely excited about it being a family affair, but we’re focusing on each week of having our horses and ourselves the healthiest we can be to rope the best we can and have each event make sense,” Hawkins said. “We don’t want to drive to California for one rodeo and drive back again.” Ward hasn’t been to the

Wrangler NFR yet, but he almost made it in 2018 when he finished the season 22nd in the world standings with $57,050. A big chunk of those earnings came when he won the RAMNational Circuit Finals Rodeo. “It’s what I’ve dreamed of since I was a kid,” Ward said. “I wake up every morning trying to get out there. The highest goal of my life has been to make the NFR.” The newly formed team hit the rodeo road hard in the fall. “We went to everything until (coronavirus) shut us down,” Ward said. The time off from competing wasn’t wasted. “Rodeo is the lifestyle for us, and to be without it was challenging but the quarantine wasn’t a season of misery, if you will, but we’re very excited to be back at it,” Hawkins said, adding that he spent the hiatus training horses. “I hadn’t woken up and wondered what day it is since high school, but for a month I didn’t know if it was a Wednesday or a Saturday.” STARTING ON THE RIGHT FOOT InWoodward, there was a five-way tie for second at 4.9 seconds, but Ward and Hawkins passed those teams by a half-second. “I’ve never seen anything like that before, 4.9 was stuck on the board,” Ward said. Before their $5,510Woodward win, Ward was 13th in the team roping heading standings and Hawkins was 14th among team roping heelers. They picked up an additional $1,007 on June 13 by tying for sixth at the Coleman (Texas) PRCA Rodeo. The combined checks pushedWard to 10th in the world standings and Hawkins to eighth. “We’re grateful to be back to work,” Hawkins said. “I heard some folks a couple weeks ago had to wear a mask to go to work, and they were like, ‘Man, I’m not doing it, I hate this.’ I said if I could wear a mask and compete at Reno you can bet I’ll be there.”

enteredWoodward since it was one of the premier ProRodeo events following the COVID-19 hiatus. “There were over 100 teams due to the excitement of getting to rodeo again, but usually Woodward has 50,” Ward said. This year’s rodeo paid out $158,580, $22,960 more than last year. “We need to win and make money every month, so withWoodward having a great rodeo it really helps the pocketbook to keep us going,” Ward said. Woodward was the first ProRodeo competition for the duo since La Fiesta de los Vaqueros in Tucson, Ariz., in February, and they were excited to compete again. “It was awesome for them to open up as one of the first since the (coronavirus) deal, and I hope others (rodeo committees) see how many cowboys want to be doing this,” Ward said. “We need to have somewhere to go or we’d be working. We’d rather rodeo.” TEAMING UP Ward and Hawkins have been friends for years and began discussing teaming up last summer, and that’s how Hawkins met his wife, Tori,

SADDLE BRONC RIDING 1. (Tie) Brody Cress ..... 87 pts. Sterling Crawley ............. 87 3. Treyson Antonick ............ 85

TIE-DOWN ROPING 1. Ryan Jarrett ............8.6 sec. 2. Hagen Houck ................. 9.1 3. Two tied at ..................... 9.4

BARREL RACING 1. C. Wimberley ......17.06 sec. 2. Paige Jones ............... 17.07 3. Britany Diaz ............... 17.12

BULL RIDING 1. (Tie) T. Bingham ... 84.5 pts. T.J. Gray ...................... 84.5 3. Kole Bowman .............. 82.5

Complete results/Page 52

ProRodeo Sports News 6/26/2020

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