Ohl Man River Just Keeps Rolling Along

Kyle Partain/ProRodeo.com 

Two down, one to go for five-time World Champion Tie-Down Roper Cody Ohl in 2011.
While the Hico, Texas, cowboy has competed sparingly this season, he’s made the most of the opportunities with wins at the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo and now the Reno Rodeo.

"There were three big ones I’d never won coming into the year, San Antone, Reno and Salinas,” Ohl said. “That’s two down and Salinas (Calif.) is just a few weeks away.”

Ohl claimed his first pair of Reno Rodeo championship spurs with a “practice run” of 9.6 seconds after some bad luck eliminated his three closest competitors in the average race during the Reno short round June 25.

Matt Shiozawa and Huston Hutto set the bar at 28.0 seconds on three head. Forced to rope fast, Shane Hanchey and 2004 World Champion Monty Lewis both missed. Defending Reno champion Joseph Parsons roped a hind leg and eventually took a no-time. Any run under 10.6 seconds would be good enough for Ohl to claim the average title.“It’s fun to rope at all the big rodeos with the pressure on,” he said. “That’s not the way it worked out tonight, but I’ll take it. I’ve been looking to win these spurs for a while. Now, it’s on to Salinas.”

Ohl claimed $6,046 for the average win, as well as $410 for placing fifth in the short round. All totaled, he collected $9,742 in Reno. Not bad considering he hadn''t roped much since his San Antonio victory.

I've got a family at home and I’m raising some bucking bulls, so it’s nice to stay home some these days,” he said. “Winning San Antonio allowed me to do that. Had I not won there, I would have had to rodeo a little more. Either way, I wasn’t worried about it too much since there’s so much money to be won the next three months. This is when the rodeo season really heats up.”

Other champions in Reno included: Rhen Richard, all-around; Royce Ford and Tilden Hooper, bareback riding; Todd Suhn, steer wrestling; Turtle Powell and Jhett Johnson, team roping; Jesse Wright, saddle bronc riding; Robyn Herring, barrel racing, and Shane Proctor, bull riding.

Click here for Reno Rodeo full results.