Team ropers establish standard in Round 6

Thursday, Dec. 11, 2003 | 10:04 a.m.

The veteran team-roping team of Jake Barnes and Allen Bach played beat-the-clock Wednesday night at the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo and stunned the crowd of 17,124 at the Thomas and Mack Center with a 3.9-second takedown to claim the Round 6 victory.

It moved Barnes and Bach both into second place in the world heeling and heading standings.

Barnes, who won a record seven team-roping championships with Clay O'Brien Cooper, is trying to catch standings leader and six-time world champion Speed Williams, but Barnes trails Williams by more than $42,000 with just four rounds remaining.

"What's really cool," said Bach, "is the fact that Speed and Rich (Skelton) right now are trying to tie Jake and Clay's record. It seems ironic that, here's Jake, he's the guy that has got the best shot to stop them from getting it done.

"It's like one of those matches made in heaven."

Between them, Bach, who hails from Weatherford, Texas, and Barnes, who is from Scottsdale, Ariz., have 37 Wrangler NFR appearances and 10 world championships.

Bach this year tied the Wrangler NFR event record with 19 team roping qualifications.

He and 117 other competitors are winding up their season at the Thomas and Mack Center where world champions will be crowned Sunday at the end of the 10-day, $5 million event. Round 7 begins at 7 tonight.

Catching up was the theme of the night Wednesday at the rodeo.

Four-time world champion Cody Ohl won his second round in tie-down roping with a time of 7.1 seconds. He remained in second place in the standings and moved to within $11,412 of catching reigning and seven-time world champion Fred Whitfield.

"Fred was getting farther and farther away from me," said Ohl, "and it was time to go for the smash. It was time to speed things up a little bit and things worked out."

Two-time world champion barrel racer Sherry Cervi won her second consecutive round, covering the pattern in 13.96 seconds. Cervi jumped into second place in the world standings and trails leader Kelly Kaminski, who finished second Wednesday night, by $30,000.

"Staying steady and placing (among the top six) every night is my goal," said Kaminski, of Bellville, Texas. "I pretend like every night is a new rodeo that I travel to, but all the arenas are starting to look alike."

Kaminski has $125,995 in the world standings and has amassed $52,023 through the first six rounds at the Thomas and Mack Center.Steer wrestler Teddy Johnston, the world runner-up in 2000, moved into third place after winning Round 6 with a 3.3-second run -- the fastest of this year's Wrangler NFR. Johnson is just $300 out of second place and $4,886 shy of leader Birch Negaard.

Bull rider B.J. Schumacher claimed the Round 6 victory with an 87.5-point ride on Stace Smith's Dirty White Bull and moved into third place in the standings, still $29,000 out of the lead held by Terry Don West.

Elsewhere, Royce Ford, a son of five-time world bareback riding champion and ProRodeo Hall of Famer Bruce Ford, claimed the round title with a 90-point ride on Cervi Championship's Ernie's Pet, while saddle bronc rider Mike Outhier took the victory lap after scoring 87.5 points on Korkow's Dirty Girl.