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Show mm The 33rd annual Dinosaur Roundup iJrieo began Thursday in Vernal at ! Uintah County Fairgrounds and ! nv top ranked cowboys were Suled to take part in the first day j he rodeo. The top ranked cowboys ho signed up for the Thursday por-n por-n of the annual rodeo were: Lback broncs, Mickey Young: Dan- v Brady Leis Feild' calf roPing-Ly roPing-Ly Jetton; saddle bronc, Kent Loer David Bothum; team roping, Z Barnes, Allen Bach, Julio Mweno and Rickey Green. Young finished in third place in the l982 bareback bronc riding standings ,560 976. Bruce Ford placed first at !113 644. Young's biggest win in 1982 f)s '$2,400 at Reno, Nevada and was second' in the National Finals Rodeo ! average at $21,951. Brady, a two-time 1 bareback champion in 1981 and 1982 at 1 ibeDinosaur Roundup Rodeo, finish-l finish-l (din eighth place in the final world standings at $38,093. Feild placed fifth 1 j, the world standings at $51,455. Brady's biggest win of the year was at l Ren0t Nevada, where he won $38,510. I feild'won $10,000 at Cheyenne, Wyom-; Wyom-; jog in bareback, saddle bronc and ' all-around. Jetton finished in second place in the world calf roping standings at $91,258. Roy Cooper placed first at $95,694. Barnes and Bach placed tenth at 535,363. Green nabbed seventh at ! J40i39 and Moreno picked up ninth place at $35,586. Bothum placed tenth in the saddle bronc at $32,999 and Cooper, holder of second highest saddle sad-dle bronc ever at 93, which he gained at Vernal, placed seventh at $38,822. ' Stephenville, Texas' Jetton won a S14,600 lead over Roy Cooper into the Finals, but Jetton placed only three times, losing the championship with a broken barrier and a hard kicking calf on the final run of the season. Jetton is the co-holder of the second fastest time in calf roping at 7.3 at Watonga Oklahoma in 1979. Barnes and Bach biggest win was $4,000 at Reno Nevada. Top ranked cowboys, Lewis Feild saddle bronc; Charles Needham and Ted Nuce, bull riding are scheduled to appear in Friday's Dinosaur Roundup Rodeo. Another excellent saddle bronc rider slated to appear is Dixon Hamilton. After an exhilarating October win at Rodeo Pro Tour USA's Finals I in Casper, Wyoming, Charlie Needham still found himself ranked sixteenth going go-ing into the final week of the regular season. But at San Franscisco, he won the bull riding average for $4,800 moving mov-ing into the fourteenth place and his first NFR qualification. The 24-year-old Wyoming bull rider is a former state high school bareback and saddle bronc champion, as well as a two year collegiate regional all-around all-around champion. As only the second Wyoming cowboy to ever qualify for NFR bull riding, Needham has held a PRCA card for three seasons, though he says this is the first year he "has really gone for it." He didn't place well in July, so he enrolled at the University of Wyoming, but one last swing through the Northwest Nor-thwest resulted in wins at Ellenburg and Walla Walla, putting him in National Na-tional Finals contention. "When I got hot like that," he said to one reporter, "I had to drop out and shoot for it." PRCA stock contractor Pete Burns described Needham as having "lots of drive and dedication. No matter how he's done, he's always smiling and happy- he has the perfect attitude." "It's been a super season," said 21-year-old Californian Ted Nuce in November, 1982, "and making the National Na-tional Finals is one of the greatest highlights of my life." After breaking into prorodeo ranks in 1980, as the PRCA's bull riding rookie of the year, Nuce had a so-so sophomore season. But in 1982, traveling travel-ing with top-ranked Charles Sampson, Ted had $l,00O-plus wins at Houston, Bakersfield, South St. Paul, Sheridan, Burwell and Seattle. The youngest of the Top-10 PRCA buU riders, Nuce feels that Sampson's belief in positive thinking has made a big difference in his own attitude. "We play racquet baU and tennis, we snow and water ski, and we have a good time going to those rodeos together." Ted began riding steers at age 16, attended at-tended Larry Mahan and Gary Leffew bull riding schools and now describes his riding style in psychological, not physical terms. "You can't think and ride bulls," he says. "If you start thinking up there the next thing you know you're on the ground. I just try to charge the bulls front end, be aggressive, and lift with my riding hand." Jack Hannum, former football coach at Union and Clearfield High Schools, will compete in the calf roping rop-ing event at the Saturday Dinosaur Roundup Rodeo show. Mike Miller who tied for the saddle bronc championship cham-pionship with Kevin SmaU last year at the Dinosaur Roundup Rodeo as well as Needham will compete in the saddle sad-dle bronc event. Many outstanding Utah cowboys are scheduled to appear in the Saturday show such as NeU Callister, Delta, bareback; Kent and Lamont Miller, Feilding, calf roping; Brett Siddoway, Christopher Freed, Rex Wilkins, Jeff and Jay Thomas, W.L. Blackburn, Doc Allen, Millers, team roping. Many Utah buU riders are scheduled to appear. Kary McNeiU wiU take part in Friday's Fri-day's calf roping. Vernal team ropers, Paul McGomery, Lance Gardner, Cory McNeill, Hal Mecham, Bryce Baker, Dwight Springer, Josh Reynolds, D.J. Reynolds, Leland McNeiU, Kary McNeiU, Rick Massey, Bud Massey will compete Friday. The annual Dinosaur Roundup Rodeo will begin each night at 7 p.m. and a parade wiU be held Saturday at 6 p.m. The rodeo is Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association approved. A dance will be held Friday and Saturday Satur-day at the Cowboy Corral at 9 p.m. |