Granger hangs on at Silver Spur Rodeo

After Terrance Granger finished his eight seconds of bucking, he sprung from the bull, regained his footing and headed over to the bucking chute to watch how his buddies would fare.

Turns out no one would do as well as him.

Granger was the only rider to score in the bull riding performance and capped off Friday night with an 84, good enough to top the leader board after day one of the 2013 Yuma Jaycees Silver Spurs Rodeo.

“It was just a little bull,” Granger said. “He jump kicked good and once he came around that corner he just started gassing it. It felt real good.”

Granger, who was the second rider, watched on as the next seven riders failed to score.

“ Tonight we had a good pin of bulls,” he said. “There's a lot of good riders though so it gets you antsy, but you root for all your buddies to ride up and do good. I guess it's just how the sport is.”

This was Granger's first event of the season after taking a four-month break. His 84 has him currently in first place over Remi Wildeman's 73 earlier Friday.

“I guess you would say it's pretty much a routine,” Granger said. “You're used to it, so I think once you stop riding bulls you still know how to do it.”

Granger won the Silver Spurs Rodeo a few years ago and loves coming back.

“It's fun coming here,” he said. “It's a good rodeo. A lot of good bulls, a lot of good riders.”

It's early in the season for most of the riders, so some are still working out the kinks in their game. Four-time bareback champion Wyatt Hancock took advantage of the cold weather and ended the night at the top of the standings with a 78.

“I like to go when the horses buck the best,” Hancock said. “It's cold tonight and horses like to buck when it's cold.”

Jason Martin was the only other bareback rider to score Friday night, but his 54 didn't crack the top three.

Hancock placed two weeks ago in his first rodeo of the season in Rio Rancho N.M., and is looking to do the same this weekend.

“If I place in the first two that's a good start to the season,” he said.

All four riders in the Saddle Bronc event scored including Charlie Kogaines and Ad Bugenig with 74 and Brandon Biebelle with a 73.

“We all didn't ride as good as we could have tonight,” Bugenig said. “The horses were good and if we all rode better it would have probably been 78, 79. We rode OK, but it could have been better.”

The horses are rated on a scale of 1-25, so if a rider is given a highly rated horse, making the most of that situation is critical.

“When you know you have a good horse you know he's going to do his part,” Bugenig said. “If you have a sorry horse than you have to really make it work to make him buck. When you have one of the best ones you have to take advantage.”

On the tie roping side, Anthony Estep cracked the top four, beating out Cameron Elston by a tenth of a second with an 11.2.

“It always feels good to win, but I just wish I would have done better,” Estep said. “I roped him good, but when I went to switch him, he switched and then he started running and then I had to go chase him down. He was just kind of hanging on the end of the rope.”

In steer wrestling Cody Glover and Michael Bates Jr. tied for first with 9.9. In the average standings Glover has a 1.1 second lead over Bates with a 17.5 aggregate.

Tom Richards and Nick Sarchett topped the leader boards in team roping with a score of 5.1, but failed to crack the top four in the average standings.

Cindy Woods' flawless 17.4-second run shot her to the top of the standings in barrel racing. April Denny and Jan Duquette tied for second, both coming in at 17.8.