PORTALES, N.M. – The Eastern New Mexico University Rodeo team completed its first competition of the 2026-27 season at home in Lewis-Cooper Arena this past weekend at the College Daze Rodeo. The Greyhound women took home the team title over all other nine Caprock Region schools, their first College Daze title since 2022. The men finished seventh out of ten overall. Six women and three men made the short-round on Saturday and three finished as reserve champions in their respective events.
"I think it's really awesome to win the first one," said head coach
John Sharp about the women earning the team title, "just a lot of grit and determination helped us get that championship."
Brooke Bruner finished as the reserve champion in the goat tying after posting the fastest time in the short round with an 8.1 and following up with an 8.4 in the short go.
Georgia Shields finished just behind Bruner in fourth, with times of 8.5 and 8.8 in her first College Daze appearance at ENMU.
Shaylee Baxley finished just 0.2 off the lead in the breakaway roping, tying with Avery Armstrong from West Texas A&M for the reserve champion title with times of 5.1 on two calves in her ENMU debut.
Brinlee Yore finished in ninth for the Greyhounds after having a time of 2.5 in the long round but missing the calf in the short go.
Allie Murphy had a strong season debut in the barrel racing, finishing just 0.01 seconds behind the leader in Hailey Beal of Texas Tech. Murphy ran a 17.76 in the long round, then improving her time to a 17.26 in Saturday's short go, putting her at 35.02 in the average. ENMU returner
Mazey Hillrud finished seventh in the average with a combined time of 35.67.
"They won the women's title, but there's still areas to improve… there's always the upside that it could have been even better than it was." said Sharp.
The men's team saw success in the steer wrestling and tie-down roping. Sophomore
Orran Hart finished in fourth in the bulldogging, posting a time of 5.6 in Thursday night's performance and a 15.2 in the short go.
The reigning Rookie of the Year and Reserve National Champion in the tie-down
Cutter Pareo picked up where he left off, tying his calf in the Saturday slack in 10.8 seconds, putting him in the second place position going into Saturday. He finished sixth in the average after a 14.7 second run in the short round.
Hadley White finished in tenth after a 12.2 in the long round but missed the calf in the short go.
"In rodeo, it's wins and losses and ups and downs. I think the biggest thing with the men's team is it's just the first rodeo, there's nine more left, and we are more than capable of doing it. It's just getting in there, having the ball bounce our way, drawing a little better in certain situations… just going about the processes and operations the right way, because the kids on our team, they're good enough to compete. We just have to let the good luck start coming our way. "Said coach Sharp about the men's opening weekend.
Sharp commented on the efforts the entire staff and team put in the past few weeks to make the College Daze Rodeo happen;
"It's easy to look at the wins and the kids that had success this weekend, but if you're going to recap the rodeo, all the kids worked so hard all week to put this on." Said Sharp about the team's efforts not only in competition, but putting on the first rodeo of the year. "You can't put these types of events on without really good help, and ones that you can rely on, and our kids were really great with that."
The full event results can be found here.
The ENMU Rodeo team will head to Lovington, N.M. this week to compete at the New Mexico Junior College Thunderbird Rodeo Sept. 24-26.
