Lovell Wins Round 3 of 2023 Cinch Timed Event Championship

Lovell Triumphs in Grueling Go-Round Battle in Round 3 at 2023 Cinch Timed Event Championship

Colby Lovell crept closer to the top eight with a Round 3 win at the Cinch Timed Event Championship, while Riley Wakefield hung tough to keep his aggregate lead.

World Champion Header Colby Lovell has shown glimmers of the greatness he expects from himself over 15 head he’s run at the Cinch Timed Event Championship, finally putting the round together he wanted March 3 with a time of 51.4 seconds on five.

For the round win, Lovell banked $3,000.

Big Picture

He’d started Round 1 off the night before by putting together three of the fastest heading, tie-down and heeling runs in the history of the event, on pace to have perhaps one of the fastest go-rounds of all time. But then came the steer wrestling, when Lovell lost his reins leaving the box, got rocked back leaving the box and lost his timing all together, missing the steer and taking a 60 after trying until the buzzer to get him caught again.

“I was really disappointed in myself,” Lovell said. “In team roping, you got a partner and you’ve got both partners families, but in this, there are so many people who’ve helped me get to this point in the last month and a half or two months, and they’re watching and they’re here. You’re not just letting yourself down. You’ve got to take care of business when you get into a spot like this. It’s very humbling. The slightest thing goes wrong in one of those events and you haven’t done it, you’re fixing to get dirty.”

Lovell bounced back without another 60 throughout the next two rounds, clawing his way back to ninth in the average with a 230.2 on 15 head. That’s one hole out of the money with 10 head left in the event, and it’s 50.2 seconds behind Riley Wakefield who leads the event with a 180.0.

“I’m just going to keep pushing and be in competition with each cow,” Lovell said. “I heard Jade Corkill say a long time ago, if the steer beats you, you’re beat. He said you’re in competition with the cow, and I never thought about that—I always think I’m in competition with everybody.”

Nitty Gritty

Round 3 was a knife fight, with Cody Doescher—fighting for a chance at his first CTEC title and fresh off the Round 2 win—finishing just one second behind Lovell, with past CTEC Champ Jess Tierney on their heels at a 53.0. Meanwhile, Timed Event Rookie Riley Wakefield hung in there with a 58.5 for fifth in the go. Russell Cardoza—who won Round 1 and who’s yet to capture an Ironman title in 10 prior attempts, despite coming ever-so-close—was fourth with a 54.6-second go-round aggregate time and trails Wakefield by only 7.3 seconds in the average.

“In the heading, I had a good steer,” said Lovell, who has the help of reigning World Champ Kaleb Driggers. “It was one we felt like we could push on a little bit. We don’t want another 60. Then in calf roping, it was a really good calf. And that horse is a really good horse, and he give me a lot of send. I should have set up a little more and been little more patient, and he was a big calf and I misflanked him and had to go back. But he was a good calf.”

Colby Lovell calf roping Cinch Timed Event Championship

Lovell rode a horse he calls Festus in the heading owned by Walker Smith, that Lovell sold them a few years ago. And he rode a calf horse named Kicks Brooks from Gary Wells. In the heeling, Lovell opted for Jamming On The Lake, a 6-year-old horse he’s shown at the American Rope Horse Futurity Association events now owned by Bill Fick.

“They’d been 10 on that steer twice, and he really run,” Lovell said. “You get into a spot with a person, and Driggers and I have run so many steers, you can read each other without saying anything. A steer like that, you have to push and get after it.”

Lovell survived his two toughest events with his best runs yet, knocking his bull dogging steer down in 4.9 seconds thanks to Sawyer Bell’s horse, and his tripping steer in 17.9 with the help of Neal Wood’s Pistol.

Clay Smith and Junior Nogueria were 35.36 on five head to take home the Open title at the 49th Annual Windy Ryon Memorial. RC Photography.

“That horse is a dang good horse, and when I borrow people’s horses I want to do the best job I can,” Lovell said of his tripping so far. “And that’s so hard on them, and these steers are big. I was really trying to ride to get the momentum to turn that steer around. It’s such a big jerk on them right there. I watch those guys that are so good at it, and the horse doesn’t feel nothing. And then I go back and watch me, and the horse looks like a car hit them. So I was trying tonight to smooth that out.”

What’s Next?

Round 4 of the Cinch Timed Event Championship starts at 12 p.m. CT on Roping.com. The top 15 in the aggregate will come back to Round 5 at 7 p.m. today, March 4, crowning the $100,000 champ at the conclusion of the evening. The JR. Ironman precedes that at 5 p.m.