Baker Breaks Through on the Bronc

The Thunderbird men's team was highlighted by David Baker's performance in the bronc riding at the Western Texas College Rodeo in Snyder, Texas.

Baker finished sixth in average with his performance on Saturday, April 6.

The Santa Rosa, NM native made the short round with a 75.5 ride and in the short round posted a 73 point ride to end up sixth in average.

"This week's performance from David was different because it looked like he was hungry to win," men's rodeo head coach Stewy Kinley said. "He drew two really snappy horses and in turn, he was aggressive and snappy as well. Both of his rides were great efforts."

Baker's dedication to his craft is finally paying off after two years of work with the program.

"It's awesome to see a kid like David work hard and finally get the results he's been looking for," Kinley said. "We knew he could do it and hopefully this will spark something that will set him up for the rest of the season and into the summer."

The T-Birds have been looking for a spark this semester and Baker's performance could be the catalyst.

"We've had a really rough spring so far," Kinley said. "It's been a lot of finishes just outside the top 10 and a lot of mistakes where we didn't capitalize on good opportunities to win. But it will turn around these last 2 rodeos. These kids work too hard to not get good results. They're very talented."

The women's team has had a couple of close calls throughout the semester and are still looking to break through.

"We have had strong showings at the first three rodeos with several athletes in the top twenty of their respective events," women's rodeo head coach Alexa Wilcox said. "While the students have been working hard, it has definitely been a frustrating semester for them as we've not yet had any break into the short round of the top 10. We have been very close in several rodeos this semester."

Rodeoing involves a variety of factors that lead to making the short round or being a few spots out and being sent home early. 

"In a game of hundredths of seconds, competing against over 150 others or more can obviously be very competitive," Wilcox said. "We battled horse injury and sickness early on in the semester and are hopeful the students and their equine athletes are now in the groove to finish strong.  Both the men and women's teams have been putting in the time and effort in practice; with a little luck, we hope to be in the short round the next two weeks."

The T-Birds will travel to Big Spring, Texas April 11-13 to compete in the fourth rodeo of the semester at the Howard College Rodeo.