Youth hold their own at P.C. Fair

The 104th Annual Phillips County Fair feature plenty of young talent electrifying the Grandstands on Sunday, August 4.

The talent included many young participants in the Youth Rodeo event hosted by the KillEagle family and KillEagle productions.

"I like having this event for the kids," Joey KillEagle, the event's coordinator said. "It's a pretty good crowd. Last year there weren't very many people but this year on Sunday the kids got a pretty good crowd."

KillEagle was asked why the Youth Rodeo was such an important event.

"It's something that the kids want and we were able to give it to them," KillEagle said.

He went on to mention that not many youth rodeos offered saddle bronc and young bull events for middle school and high schoolers.

"I don't see much rough stock in youth rodeos around this area, so that's why we do it at this one," KillEagle said.

Sam Malmend of Saco has been having a productive summer rodeo and he returned for his second P.C. Fair Youth rodeo. He won the Ranch Bronc Event last year.

"It's a good turnout," Malmend said. "It's pretty fun and there is a bigger turnout than last year."

After the first round of the Ranch Bronc Malmend trailed only Malta's Oren Mackey who had 73 points. Malmend who rode a horse called Dun Horse, had 68. Dodson's Shaun Ball had 67 and Saco's Craton Nelson had 65.

Hoping to retain his 2018 Ranch Bronc title, Malmend mentioned that he would go out and try his best.

Mackey was able to hang on and win the event.

Brody Hammond won Mutton Busting with a ride score of 78 points. Brannon Hammond was second with a score of 71. KJ Fetter, last year's Mutton Busting champ was third with a score of 76. Anna Brown finished in fourth with a score of 61. Manda Hart was fifth with a score of 60.

Ty Murphy was the lone bareback rider, putting up a score of 66.

The Pole Bending Ages 8-13 event was won by Blake Ozark, who had a time of 26.021. Aislinn Handy was second with a time of 26.189. Hadley NotAfraid was third with a time of 26.621. Lela Domire had the fastest recorded time of 22.850, but had to add 10 seconds to her time due to a pair of tipped barrels.

In the Pole Bending Ages 14-18, Shayna Benzing won with a time of 22.981. Talyssa Horn was second with a time of 23.881 and Ella Messerly was third with a time of 25.810. Brittany Cox had the fastest run of the day at 21.680, but she tipped a barrel, adding five seconds to her time.

Morgan McEwen won the Barrel Races in the Ages 8-14 with a time of 15.824. Kashlynn SpeaksThunder was second with a time of 16.281 and Blake Ozark was third with a time of 16.397.

There were 11 entries in the Chute Dogging event, an event for ages 14-18, but only three participants logged times. Alex Werk won with a time of 42.31. Pierce Mortenson was second with a time of 29.15 and Jackson Simonson was third with a time of 18.79.

Cash KillEagle provided the junior bulls for the event, Chase Cole brought the chute dogging steers, and Dalvin Ereaux brought the roping steers.