Pro Rodeo Canada
For Immediate Release
Sept 5, 2012
Rylan Geiger and Ty Pozzobon left no doubt in anybody’s mind – they are this year’s Wrangler Canadian Tour champions.
They locked up their titles at the Tour finale at Armstrong, B.C. on Sunday night by winning the average in their events.
Geiger, ranked No 1 in the Canadian saddle bronc riding standings, tied for fifth in the qualifying round with an 83.25 score on the Northcott bay Chuck Berry and won the championship round with a championship round best 87.25 on Rock Star from the Outlaw Bucker’s stable.
The champions are determined by the number of points they accumulate over ten high profile rodeos during the regular season and the Armstrong finale.
The Saskatchewan raised Geiger led by nearly 200 points going in and won for fun. He not only earned $4,153, but also picked up another $1,103 in prize money at conflicting rodeos in Merritt, B.C., and Okotoks, boosting his take for the season to $38,704. That’s more than any other event season leader and he’s not done yet.
There are still three stops left on the schedule – St. Tite, Que., this coming weekend and McCord, Sask., and Hanna at the end of the month.
Pozzobon, who had a slight points lead going into Armstrong, pulled off a sweep in the bull riding, winning the qualifying and championship rounds along with the average. He led the pack with an 88.5 score on an unridden four-year-old Calgary bull called Man in Black. In the championship round, the Merritt, B.C., product tamed a Franklin outlaw called Team Paige for 90.25 points.
His aggregate total was a Wrangler Tour finale record 188.75 points and produced $6,216 in prize money.
It was just enough to overtake Canadian standings leader Scott Schiffner.
Pozzobon’s season’s income is now $32,896, a mere $156 more than Schiffner. They’ll settle their difference at McCord and Hanna on the last weekend of September.
The others Tour winners were reigning Canadian bareback riding champion Dusty LaValley, tie-down roper Shane Hanchey in a tie-breaker over traveling partner Cody Ohl, Texan Matt Reeves in the steer wrestling and “socialite” barrel racer Lee Ann Rust.
Canadian standings leader Dustin Bird, from Montana, and New Mexico’s Jim Ross Cooper were the team roping heading and heeling Tour champions.
The Tour perk for the champions, other than the team ropers and the barrel racer, is a bye into next summer’s Calgary Stampede. Elsewhere, Kyle Thomson and neighbor Lyle Hewitt hooked up to cash second for $869 apiece in the team roping at Okotoks.
That kicked Thomson’s earnings in that event beyond $1,000 and he’s now qualified to possibly win the coveted Bill Linderman award, which goes to the top money winner in three events. Thomson has earned a total of $34,774 in the saddle bronc riding, steer wrestling and team roping.
Only Nebraska’s Kyle Whitaker has chance of catching the Canadian. He’s earned $41,705, but has yet to reach $1,000 in the tie-down roping and bronc riding.
The only Canadians ever to win the Linderman Award were the late Kenny McLean, Tom Erickson and Bernie Smythe.
Also at Okotoks, Dean Edge cashed first in the tie-down roping with a 7.2 second run that paid $1,390. It was enough to put him in a position to qualify for the 12th and last hole for the Canadian Finals Rodeo.
The only change at the top end of the event standings took place in the steer wrestling where Cody Cassidy picked up $812 at Merritt and $459 at Okotoks. That kicked his earnings for the year to $20,916 and moved Tanner Milan, shut out during the weekend, down to second with $20,022.
Pro Rodeo Canada
Airdrie, Alberta
Phone: (403) 945-0903
Email: cpra@rodeocanada.com |
