Taylor is headed to Pocatello rodeo

Gem State meet June 11-16

Haillie Taylor Photo by David N. Seelig

Wood River High School graduating senior Haillie Taylor has qualified in five events for the State High School rodeo finals June 11-15 at Bannock County Fairgrounds, Pocatello.

Taylor and the rest of the cowgirls on the 5th District circuit finished up their qualifying season Friday and Saturday during the district finals at Gooding County Fairgrounds.

After five rodeos in Glenns Ferry, Gooding, Shoshone and Carey, Taylor placed in the state-qualifying top six in breakaway roping, pole bending, barrel racing, goat tying and girls' cow cutting.

Fairfield's Whitness Hurless, a freshman riding for the Wood River Rodeo Team, also qualified for state as a circuit rookie with a fourth-place breakaway roping finish.

Taylor shared the season cutting championship with Valley's Jessie Lancaster, each with 57 points after six cuttings. In third place was Taylor's Wood River Rodeo teammate Tayler Bosch (8 points).

Here are Taylor's other season point totals per event:

- Breakaway roping: 1—Valene Lickley of Valley 67 points. 2—Haillie Taylor 62. 3—Darby Fox (Glenns Ferry) 57. 4—Whitnee Hurless (Fairfield) 43. Others: Kylie Castle of Carey 5.

- Pole bending: 1—Darby Fox 91 points. 2—Haillie Taylor 68. 3—Jade Gorrell of Glenns Ferry 54. Others: Whitnee Hurless 10 and Kylie Castle 14.

- Barrel racing: 1—Bailey Gough (Gooding rookie) 75 points. 2—Darby Fox 67. 3—Haillie Taylor 63. Others: Whitnee Hurless 33 and Kylie Castle 5.

- Goat tying: 1—Valene Lickley 89. 2—Marlee Mussmann (Gooding) 80. 3—Jade Gorrell 52. 4—Haillie Taylor 51. Others: Kylie Castle 6.

The girls' all-around season race ended up in a tie between last year's champion Darby Fox and 2010 overall winner Valene Lickley. Each had 290 points, with 2009 all-around girls' winner Taylor in third place (254).

Fox enjoyed the best weekend in the May 25-26 Gooding finale picking up 67 points including two barrel racing wins in 17.838 and 18.406 seconds, and two pole bending victories in 20.673 and 21.241 seconds.

To catch up and tie Lickley in season points, Fox also collected 17 critical points in team roping with partner Garrett Webb of Wendell—with second-place and third-place rides of 12.700 and 13.680 seconds.

Lickley added 64 points to her season total at Gooding including two goat tying wins in 8.720 and 10.440 seconds.

The real difference in the season-long three-way race between Fox, Lickley and Taylor came in team roping. Lickley earned 41 season points, Fox 40 and Taylor just 10 points.

Winning the boys' all-around race was Jared Parke of Gooding (200) by a slim five-point margin over Brogan Bennett of Gooding (195). Parke was the calf roping king 81-74 over Bennett, and Parke also took steer wrestling with 78.

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