Cowboys return to Vegas for lucrative season finale

Thursday, Dec. 4, 1997 | 12:23 p.m.

The richest rodeo in the world -- the $3.4 million National Finals Rodeo -- kicks off its first of 10 performances Friday at the Thomas & Mack Center. The top 15 athletes in each of seven events -- bareback riding, calf roping, steer wrestling, saddle bronc riding, team roping (heading and heeling), bull riding and WPRA barrel racing -- qualify for the lucrative season finale event.

Among the qualifiers is three-time world champion saddle bronc rider Dan Mortensen of Manhattan, Mont. The 28-year-old cowboy enters the NFR with a commanding lead in the world saddle bronc riding standings with $144,029 -- nearly $50,000 more than second-ranked Robert Etbauer of Goodwell, Okla.

Though Mortensen qualified for the 1997 NFR exclusively in the saddlebronc riding, the more than $9,000 he earned riding bulls in the '97 regular season also made him a prime contender for this year's all-around title. In fact, Mortensen enters the NFR ranked first in the world all-around standings. His closest challenger for the all-around race is Texas calf roper Cody Ohl. Ohl, whose second event is steer roping, has $113,414 in all-around earnings. Immediately behind him in the all-around standings is two-time defending world all-around champion Joe Beaver of Huntsville, Texas. Beaver,a calf roper and team roper, is the only contestant to qualify for the NFR in two events, which greatly increases his chances of earning a third consecutive all-around title.

Both Ohl and Beaver will gun for a world title in the calf roping event. Ohl leads the calf roping standings with $99,464, while Beaver sits in the seventh-place spot with $65,419. Stran Smith of Tell, Texas, is ranked second and trails Ohl by less than $4,000. Fred Whitfield, the 1996 world champion calf roper from Hockley, Texas, looks for a repeat title as he enters the world title race in fifth place with $66,961.

In the steer wrestling event, Rope Myers of Van, Texas, enters the NFR in first place with $73,297 -- less than $3,000 ahead of Frank Davis of Blackwell, Texas. Myers and Davis traded in and out of the top spot for much of the 1997 regular season. However, with a total steer wrestling payoff of more than $484,900, each man knows that no lead is comfortable at the NFR.

Denny McLanahan finished the regular season leading all bareback riders. The Canadian, Texas, cowboy enters the Finals with $90,109, while second-ranked Larry Sandvick has $70,351. The reigning world champion bareback rider, Mark Garrett of Nisland, S. D., is ranked seventh with $56,374.

Oklahoma ropers Charles Pogue and heeler Britt Bockius lead the race for the world team roping title with $63,900 each in regular season earnings. In order for each to clinch his first world title, Pogue and Bockius must fend off challenges from defending world champions Steve Purcella of Hereford, Texas, and Steve Northcott of Odessa, Texas. Purcella and Northcott are ranked second with $59,682 each.

The door looks wide open to the 1997 world bull riding title as only $12,000 separates the first-ranked bull rider -- Wayde Joyal of Okotoks, Alberta -- from the 15th ranked cowboy. Also, a slew of qualifiers, including Joyal, enter the NFR having recently sustained severe injuries.

Sherry Cervi, the 1995 world champion barrel racer from Midland, Texas, has a head start at earning her second world title as she enters the Finals in the lead with $106,612. However, Kristie Peterson of Elbert, Colo., and her horse Bozo, who carried Peterson to her second world title last year, are ranked immediately beneath Cervi with $97,312. At the 1996 NFR, Kay Blandford of Sutherland Springs, Texas, earned nearly $79,000 -- more than any other '96 NFR contestant. Blandford and her horse Llave return to the Finals in third place with $83,080.