Area cutter advances to nationals

Weatherford’s Will Bushaw used a steadily improving stream of performances to win the boys cutting championship at the Texas High School Rodeo Association Finals in Abilene this past week.

Bushaw now advances to the National High School Rodeo Association Finals in Gillette, Wyoming, July 17-23. The top four finishers in each event qualified.

Bushaw finished the regular season in fourth place in point standings in Region 3.

Bushaw opened the state competition with a score of 151 in the first go-round. He improved to a 152 in the second and had a 154 in the third, scoring 10 points in each round. When his average and season points were tallied in, he finished with 57 total points, edging the runner-up, Owen Cogdell, from Tulia, by 2.5 points.

In that same event, Weatherford’s Blake Heid narrowly missed qualifying for nationals. He finished fifth with a score of 28.50, falling short of fourth place by 6.5 points.

Also just missing a qualifying spot was Weatherford’s Miller Morgan in girls cutting. She scored 34 points for sixth place, 10.75 points behind the fourth-place finisher.

Another top-10 finish came from Weatherford’s Airian Moore in bareback riding with 26 points. He was 13.5 points out of fourth.

Aledo was represented by Mason McElroy, who posted a top-20 finish. He was 17th in the saddle bronc competition.

The only other area top-20 finish was by Bushaw, who was 14th in boys cutting.

Others from Weatherford with top-50 finishes were Carter High, 22nd in bull riding; Beldon Cox, 24th in team roping; Savannah Letson, 33rd in pole bending; Caden Farrell, 37th in steer wrestling; and Christopher Withaeger, 39th in steer wrestling.

The top 10 in each event after 24 regular-season rodeos and the regional finals rodeos qualified for the state finals.