Bull riders fail to make buzzer at Lawton Rangers Rodeo

Ardmore is not an easy drive on any night but when you are unable to tame one of the best bulls in the PRCA, it’s going to be even tougher for Kase Hitt, who drew Crazy Goose from the Power River Rodeo Company.

Hitt won’t go home alone, he’s accompanied everywhere by Darla, a cute 1½-year-old Jack Russell terrier that came in riding on his equipment bag and stayed there most of the time until the rodeo clown shot off his six-shooter.

Hitt, who has been making some good checks in both the PRCA and PBR, drew a bull he knew something about.

“I rode that bull several years ago in the practice pen,” Hitt said. “My uncle owns D&H Page Bull Company and that bull worked me over pretty good. He has a couple of different moves, so tonight I just tried to stay up there but he’s a handful.”

All three of the bull riders scheduled out Wednesday night were unable to make the buzzer, so there is plenty of room on the leaderboard when the second performance when the second performance begins at 7:30 p.m. today at the LO Ranch Arena east of Lawton.

Tonight’s performance is the “Tough Enough to Wear Pink” performance where a family of four gets in for the price of one adult ticket. And a portion of that goes to the Leah M. Fitch Cancer Center at Comanche Memorial Hospital.

Gus Galliard took command in the saddle bronc riding with an 83.5 aboard Rendevous of the Beutler and Son Rodeo company.

The bronc provided plenty of action and the Morse, Texas, cowboy did the rest.

“That’s a good bronc and I was able to do my job,” Galliard said. “That’s a good one to draw and we will see if it stands up.”

Cole Franks got the lead in the bareback riding with the same score on the re-ride horse Neon Springs after Hot Sauce kept acting up in the chutes. But the young gun was able to bounce back after a long wait and still got a good chance to win some money.

Franks, son of Clarendon College Rodeo coach Bret Franks, was leaving Lawton and flying to Logan, Utah, then the trip got even longer.

“We are leaving here and going to Logan, then we are flying to Sikeston (Mo.) and then back to Lovington (N.M.). We hope we have good pilots who get us there because it’s a busy week.”

Tie-down roping didn’t see much movement during the opening performance but Landyn Duncan of Weatherford, Texas, did win the first go-round in the slack Tuesday afternoon with a time of 9.3. He roped his second calf Wednesday night but broke the barrier and dropped out of title contention in the average and the second go-round.