ODESSA, Texas – The Eastern New Mexico rodeo team had a total of nine athletes qualify for Saturday night's short round to post a quality finish for both the men's and women's team at the Odessa College Rodeo.

The women's team finished in ninth place with a total of 50 points while the men's team finished in 13^th with 35 points at the conclusion of the first rodeo of the spring semester on the Southwest Region circuit. Six women and three men made it back for the short-go in Odessa, the most total cowboys and cowgirls to qualify in a single rodeo for the Hounds this year.

The women's team was captained by four breakaway ropers that made it back for the short go including sophomore Catherine Hisel, who finished third in the average after times of 2.8 and 3.4 seconds in the long round and short round. The Clovis, N.M. native's time of 2.8 barely qualified her back for Saturday evening's performance in a very competitive long round in the breakaway competition, but her time of 3.4 seconds on Saturday night vaulted her all the way up to third in the average with a total time of 6.20 in a tough short round.

Fellow sophomore Molly Griffin joined Hisel as a top-five finisher in the average despite incurring a 10 second penalty for breaking out in the short go after recording a time of 1.9 before incurring the penalty. That time of 11.9 combined with her long round time of 2.5 was still good enough to finish fifth in the average for event, securing 50 points for the team score along the way.

Freshman Kaitlyn Doughty and sophomore Hannah Hughes also made it back to the short round on Saturday night after times of 2.4 and 2.8 in the long round, but were unable to record a time on Saturday night to fall out of contention to place in the average.

Seniors Harley-Ann DeLeeuw and Shannon Jackson each made it back to Saturday night in their respective events, with DeLeeuw splitting sixth place in the barrel racing event after a time of 14.51 seconds in the short go, but couldn't record a time fast enough to stay in contention in the short go or the average in the second round. Jackson started off the rodeo with a time of 7.3 in the first go to make it back for the short go in the goat tying event, and then recorded a time of 7.9 on Saturday night to finish eighth in the round and eighth in the average.

Sophomore Trey Jackson secured the lone 35 points for the Eastern New Mexico men's team after splitting third and fourth place in round one with a time of 4.5 seconds. Jackson failed to record a time in the short go to knock himself out of the running in the average. The team roping tandem of Luke Hisel and Wesley Gudgell were the other cowboys to make it back for the short round after a time of 7.1 in the long round, splitting ninth and 10^th place, but didn't record a time on Saturday night.

Eastern New Mexico will take some time off to build off their quality performance over the weekend before getting back on the road to the Ranger College Rodeo on March 21-23 in Ranger, Texas.