| EMCC rodeo standouts Will Lummus and Kellie Hailey qualify for next month’s CNFR in Casper, Wyo. |
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 East Mississippi Community College rodeo standouts Kellie Hailey (left) and Will Lummus have qualified to compete in the prestigious College National Finals Rodeo, to be held June 10-16 in Casper, Wyo. Lummus, from West Point’s Oak Hill Academy, will compete in the CNFR’s steer wrestling event for the second straight year. Hailey, a freshman by way of Macon’s Central Academy, is slated to compete in both breakaway roping and goat tying after claiming the Women’s All-around championship within the Ozark Region of the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association. After finishing 23rd among 39 CNFR competitors in last year’s national steer wrestling event, Lummus rallied this spring to capture Reserve Champion honors among the NIRA’s Ozark Region standings for the second consecutive year. He capped the 2012 regular season by winning back-to-back steer wrestling titles during a pair of Northwest Mississippi Community College-hosted rodeos. Last week in Centerton, Ark., Lummus earned 160 points for his second straight steer wrestling victory to give him 340 event points over the final two rodeos of the spring and a total of 610 points accumulated during the 10-rodeo 2011-12 campaign. In addition to collecting steer wrestling honors two weeks ago in Senatobia, Lummus opened the current season by winning his specialty event at the Missouri Valley College-hosted rodeo held during the fall. In her first season competing for EMCC’s second-year rodeo program, Hailey compiled 1,043.33 total points over the 10 rodeos held this season to finish 165 points ahead of Korah Agre from Missouri Valley. Hailey solidified this year’s Ozark Region Women’s All-around title by earning 185 total points at the regular-season finale held in Centerton, Ark., with a first-place showing in the breakaway roping event in addition to also placing in goat tying. Earlier in the spring, she claimed All-around Champion honors at the UT Martin-hosted rodeo with a second-place finish in goat tying while also scoring in barrel racing to pick up 215 total points. A year ago as a Central Academy senior, Hailey reigned as the Reserve All-around Cowgirl in the state of Mississippi and was a 2011 National Qualifier. With the top three student-athletes in each of the nine sanctioned events from the NIRA’s 11 participating regions qualifying for the prestigious College National Finals Rodeo, EMCC freshman cowboy Scooter Scarbrough, of Florence, finished the regular season just 20 points shy of third place in the tie down roping regional standings. Over 400 cowboys and cowgirls from more than 100 universities and colleges throughout the country will compete during this year’s 64th College National Finals Rodeo to be held for the 14th consecutive year at the Casper (Wyo.) Events Center. As a second-year program this season, head coach Morgan Goodrich’s East Mississippi Community College rodeo teams made significant improvements among the NIRA’s Ozark Region team standings. The EMCC men’s team concluded the 2011-12 campaign ranked fourth among the 11 teams of the Ozark Region, which consists primarily of four-year universities. Along with the men making a two-place improvement from a year ago, the EMCC women’s team climbed four notches from last year’s inaugural season to land in fifth place among the nine women’s teams competing in the Ozark Region. |
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| Last Updated ( Wednesday, 02 May 2012 ) |
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