our sports: COLLEGE NATIONAL FINALS RODEO
ALL AROUND CHAMP
Former Weatherford College Rodeo Team
Member Landon Williams Is the All-Around
Men’s Champion at the CNFR
BY MELISSA DILL
H
eld in Casper, Wyo., for the past 67 years, the College National Finals Rodeo (CNFR) is known as
the Rose Bowl of college rodeo competition. This year
former Weatherford College rodeo team member Landon
Williams, who now competes for Tarleton State, walked
away as the men’s All-Around National Championship
Winner. His total score of 445 points was 150 points
better than the second-place competitor and earned him
a first-place finish during the finals held on Saturday
night, June 20.
JULY 2015
PA R K E R C O U N T Y T O D AY
The rodeo held June 14-20 at the Casper Events Center, requires all entrants to qualify. The rodeo teams are
all members of teams competing within the National
Intercollegiate Rodeo Association’s (NIRA) 11 regions.
Individual event champions are crowned in goat tying,
breakaway roping, barrel racing, steer wrestling, team
roping, tie-down roping, bull riding, bareback riding and
saddle bronc riding. The competition includes more
than 400 contestants from over 100 universities each
summer. Only the top three students in each event, and
the top two men's and women's teams from the NIRA's
11 regions, qualify for the CNFR.
Leading to the All-Around National Championship,
Landon Williams was crowned the individual event
champion in tie-down roping where he earned 280
points. He was also the sixth-place finisher in team roping. He competed in the team roping event with current
Weatherford College rodeo team member Casey Tew.
Williams is a member of the Tarleton Rodeo Team and
helped his team bring home the Men’s Team Championship, earning 915 collective points at the competition,
only the third time in the history of its program to do so.
They bested Panhandle State who finished in second
place with 835 points.
Williams is originally from Midland and this was his
senior year competing with the rodeo team. He’s earning
a degree from Tarleton in Agriculture Industries and has
another year of school left. When he won the Men’s AllAround Championship, “It felt great. I really took advantage of it being my senior year. It’s a prestigious place to
win,” Williams said. His winnings included saddles, a
56
year’s supply of Cinch clothing, Beck sunglasses, a belt
buckle and a scholarship that will help him finish his degree at Tarleton. He’s planning on competing at amateur
and pro rodeos in the future, but “nothing too serious.”
He celebrated his big win by hanging out with friends,
family and his fiancée.
His time on the Weatherford College team was
important to his success, and he is a big fan of both
Weatherford College and its Rodeo Coach Johnny Emmons. “I love everything about Weatherford. The coach
is awesome, an amazing coach. The school is amazing,
the town is awesome — the atmosphere and the town.
I loved everything about going to school there. Johnny
Emmons is an amazing coach and a great guy. He’s
somebody that everybody looks up to,” said Williams.
Other Weatherford College standouts from the event
were WC steer wrestler and Stephenville resident
Coledon Harmon who won eighth place with times of
7.6, 6.5 and 9.1 to advance to the finals. Seth Cooke, a
Weatherford High School graduate, finished 15th in tiedown roping. Cooke’s scores were 12.2, 16.7 and 16.0.
Also competing were Weatherford College’s Aaron Macy