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VERNON, Texas - The South Plains College rodeo team had another strong showing as they brought seven athletes back to Saturday's final short round during the third-of-five fall college rodeos, this one hosted by Vernon College.

Although there were several outstanding performances, the highlight may have to go to Ty Willick as he was able to maintain his spot near the top of the steer wrestling standings.

After his third rodeo of the season, Willick should remain in third place after earning 100 points in the steer wrestling event over the weekend, giving him 225 points for the season.

Willick had a terrific opening round in Vernon as he successfully finished the event in 4.5 seconds to enter Saturday's short round with the third best time.

In some rodeos Willick's short round time of 14 seconds could have meant disaster. However, the fact he was able to attain a time at all assured he would add to his point total as five bulldoggers were unable to record a time. Willick's humble time of 14 seconds wound up being fourth best in the round, earning another 30 points and helping him to finish fourth in the average to give him a grand total of 100 points for the weekend.

Unofficially, Willick will remain third in the event and is only 15 points behind leader Timmy Sparing - who jumped from fifth to first - and only trails Trigger Roy by five points for second.

For the first time this season the Lady Texans were represented in the final round as fabulous performances by Kylee Mackelprang and Sarah Walker in breakaway roping and Kipty Watt in goat tying made them contenders in their events.

Competing in Thursday evening's slack, Walker turned in what was then an event leading time of 2.9 seconds in the breakaway event. That time would only be beaten when teammate Mackelprang went slightly faster at 2.8 seconds Friday morning and the duo entered Saturday night's short round with the top two times in the competition.

Unfortunately, neither were able to attain a time Saturday night and Mackelprang finished with 70 points while Walker went home with 50.

Watt saw similar success in goat tying as she turned in a time of 7.9 seconds Saturday morning, good for a tie for second during the long rounds. Watt went on to a time of 9.5 seconds Saturday night, tying for fifth in the round and finishing fourth in the average to earn a total of 90 points in the event.

Also competing in the final round at the Vernon rodeo for SPC were Kyle Sutherland in bareback riding and Asa Daugherty in calf roping.

Sutherland came home with 50 championship points in the event after riding to a score of 47 Thursday evening followed by a 53 on Saturday. Sutherland's long round score was sixth best (10 points) while his score Saturday night was good for fifth (20 points).

Daugherty, meanwhile, snuck into Saturday's final with the ninth best time of 10.3 seconds in calf roping. His time of 15.6 seconds in the final was eighth best of the 10 qualifying athletes.

The SPC Texan and Lady Texan rodeo season is now quickly winding down with the conclusion of their third rodeo. They will now turn their sights on the Texas Tech rodeo this weekend, Oct. 18-20, before completing their fall schedule at Clarendon the following weekend, Oct. 25-27.