Titles are dream come true for Ohl

Thursday, Dec. 2, 1999 | 3:24 a.m.

PRCA

Cody Ohl

World titles: 1997-98 World Champion Calf Roper

Hometown: Stephenville, Texas

Date of birth: Sept. 21, 1973

Height/weight: 6-0, 200 pounds

1998 earnings: $222,794

1998 NFR earnings: $99,091

Joined PRCA: 1994

NFR qualifications: 6 (1994-99)

Since joining the PRCA in 1994, Cody Ohl has had to compete in the shadows of calf roping stars such as Joe Beaver and Fred Whitfield.

Now he's seeing how the other half lives.

At the 1998 National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas, Ohl capped a record-breaking season with his second straight world championship.

And he did it in convincing fashion, winning four rounds, including the first three. He also finished second in the ninth round -- where he officially locked up his world title.

"It's a dream come true," said Ohl, 25. "After winning last year's world championship, to win this year is phenomenal."

Ohl, of Stephenville, Texas, finished 1998 with a calf roping earnings record of $222,794. And he not only won four rounds, but also took the NFR average check worth $32,512 for total 1998 NFR earnings of $99,091.

Ohl entered the '98 NFR with a $28,445 lead over Whitfield after a stellar regular season that included big paydays at the National Western Rodeo in Denver, Cheyenne (Wyo.) Frontier Days, Reno Rodeo, the Southwestern Exhibition and Livestock Show in Fort Worth, Texas, and the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.

"The big rodeos have really pulled through for me this year," Ohl said. "There's bigger crowds and you just get pumped. It's just like a big football game. You just thrive off the crowd and win big money."

If regular-season rodeos are live football games, the NFR is its Super Bowl and Ohl performed like the game MVP.

Ohl roped his first calf at the '98 NFR in 7.8 seconds for a first-place finish. He posted a 7.7-second run for another first place in the second round and had a 7.8-second run to tie for another first place in the third round. After just three rounds, his lead grew to $69,507 over Whitfield.

"When I got tapped off and won that first round, that was probably the most important," Ohl said. "Once I got tapped off, I knew I just had to keep roping the way I was and everything would work out."

Ohl was roping fast, but he was also roping smart. After a second-place finish in the fourth round, he finished out of the money the next two nights, insuring he didn't make a mistake on calves he knew he couldn't win money on. He had his fastest time of the Finals in the seventh round with 7.4 seconds, then backed off again in the eighth and ninth rounds.

"I was a little more cautious," said Ohl, who at the '96 NFR won three straight rounds but failed to catch calves with on the first try five times. "This year, I had some good calves early in the week and then I came back with some that weren't so good. They were the kind of calves that if you didn't catch them with that first rope, it's hard to get them in position to catch them with the second rope. I had to make sure I caught them with the first loop.

"The sixth, eighth and ninth (round calves) were all middle-of-the-pen calves and I knew I didn't have a chance to win the round so I just slowed down and kept my place in the average."

In doing so, Ohl made a place for himself among the calf roping elite alongside Whitfield and Beaver. It's a place he doesn't plan on relinquishing.

"I'm going to go at it (in 1999) just like I did this year," Ohl said. "I have maybe five or 10 good years and I'm gonna go hard every year."

That dedication will help Ohl achieve the lofty goal he has set for himself.

"I want to be remembered as one of the greatest ropers of all time," he said. "Regardless of if I never win another championship, I'm a two-time world champion. That first one will always be the sweetest, but this second one being a record-breaking year, was great."