“It’s always a fun rodeo, with a good arena and good people,” Powell said. “It breaks the monotony of rodeo with those fresh, hard running cattle. They were bigger this year even than in the past, but it didn’t feel like they were too wild. It made for a great roping.”
Powell rode Rooster, his trusty gelding that Derrick Begay won Salinas on last year, too. The horse is really collected and allowed Powell to control the speed of the hard-running steers around the corner and let him handle them accordingly.
“Dakota is a guy who is a cowboy. He can ride a lot of different horses and rope a lot of different cattle, and he was able to kick up there when he needed to and throw a big loop and get them roped,” Powell continued.
They would place second in the second round on the best steer in the pen with a 5.9-second run, putting them back into the roping after being 10.2 on their first steer. Their third round steer would go left then right, and Kirchenschlager would get him roped to stop the clock in 7.5 to win the roping.
Full results:
First round: 1. (tie) Trevor Brazile/Travis Graves and Cole Dorenkamp/Jesse Jolly, 6.5 seconds, $1,956 each; 3. Travis Warren/Justin Price, 6.9, $1,547; 4. Tyler Wade/Kinney Harrell, 7.0, $1,274; 5. Chad Masters/Paul Eaves, 7.1, $1,001; 6. Matt Sherwood/Dugan Kelly, 7.2, $728; 7. Tuf Cooper/Marty Yates, 7.5, $455; 8. Kory Bramwell/Cole Jackson, 7.7, $182. Second round: 1. Keven Daniel/York Gill, 5.8 seconds, $2,092 each; 2. Turtle Powell/Dakota Kirchenschlager, 5.9, $1,819; 3. Casey Hicks/Jake Pianalto, 6.0, $1,547; 4. Coleman Proctor/Jake Long, 6.5, $1,274; 5. (tie) Calvin Brevik/Wade Masters and Charly Crawford/Ryan Motes, 6.6, $864 each; 7. (tie) Ty Blasingame/J.W. Borrego and Travis Bounds/Wade Kreutzer, 6.7, $318 each. Third round: 1. Keven Daniel/York Gill, 6.4 seconds, $2,092 each; 2. Paul David Tierney/Matt Kasner, 6.7, $1,819; 3. Luke Brown/Kollin VonAhn, 6.9, $1,547; 4. Chace Thompson/Twister Cain, 7.2, $1,274; 5. Turtle Powell/Dakota Kirchenschlager, 7.5, $1,001; 6. Trevor Brazile/Travis Graves, 7.6, $728; 7. Arky Rogers/Travis Woodard, 7.9, $455; 8. Drew Horner/Buddy Hawkins II, 8.2, $182. Average: 1. Turtle Powell/Dakota Kirchenschlager, 23.6 seconds on three head, $3,139 each; 2. Trevor Brazile/Travis Graves, 25.4, $2,729; 3. Brock Hanson/Cesar de la Cruz, 25.7, $2,320; 4. Chad Masters/Paul Eaves, 27.1, $1,910; 5. Arky Rogers/Travis Woodard, 27.3, $1,501; 6. (tie) Drew Horner/Buddy Hawkins II and Mike Bacon/Joseph Harrison, 27.5, $887 each; 8. Chace Thompson/Twister Cain, 28.3, $273.
