SAN ANGELO, TX – John Crimber closed out the Sunday performance of the San Angelo Rodeo with a 90-point ride on New West Rodeo Productions’ Payday to take the bull riding lead.
“That bull felt really good,” said Crimber, 20, of Sunset, Texas. “It just drifted into me while sucking back, and I really like bulls that do that. When they come up under you and just buck hard, I fit those bulls really good.”
Crimber is a rookie in ProRodeo but is the No. 1 bull rider in the PBR’s premier tour. His father, Paulo, was best known for his talent in the PBR, but he also advanced to the 2004 National Finals Rodeo and won the average championship that December. His son might be following in those footsteps.
“I’ve always dreamed of riding in these big rodeos, and this is a cool little rodeo arena,” John Crimber said. “I’ve heard about this rodeo, but I’ve never been here before. It was a really cool experience to be riding in such a great venue like this.
“It was really loud and packed. It was a beautiful Easter Sunday for sure.”
On the other end of the rodeo spectrum, a veteran in the sport had a strong performance in breakaway roping.
When she’s not working as an insurance adjuster or handling secretarial duties at a Lone Star Region intercollegiate rodeo or representing others as the breakaway roping director for WPRA’s Western Region, Tibba Smith is probably riding and roping.
“Yeah, I stay real busy,” said Smith of Hobbs, New Mexico, who graduated from Tarleton State University back in 2003.
No matter where work takes her, she’s still a cowgirl at heart. She has shown that over the past several days at the San Angelo Stock Show and Rodeo. She roped her way into a virtual lock for the championship round on Friday, April 17, with her 2.1-second run during Sunday’s fourth performance.
In fact, she was one of two ladies to pull off a 2.1 on a fast track inside CRC Roofers Coliseum, joining Bradi Good of Abilene, Texas. The difference for Smith was her first-round run of 3.0 seconds last week in Spur Arena, moving the New Mexican to second in the aggregate race with a two-run cumulative time of 5.1 seconds – she is one-tenth of a second behind the leader, Amy Ohrt of Victoria, Texas.
“I think the key was that I got a really good start,” Smith said. “I really wanted to be about 1.9, but the calf let up just a little bit, so it took extra time for the (string) to break off (the saddle horn). It was still a great run.”
Another advantage was her horse, Rocketman. She spent the last couple of seasons preparing the young, bay gelding to compete at a high level.
“He’s still a little bit green,” she said. “I picked him out as a 2-year-old running in the pasture. He could move so fast. He’s little-strided, but he’s fast. I bought him from some really good friends in Florida; they called me and told me they were going to sell him. I loped a couple circles, stopped him and wrote a check for him.
“We’ve been seasoning him. I went out for about a month last summer and took him. I was jus going to ride him at just some places and get him ready, because I have another horse. Well, he started doing great, so I ended up just riding him most of the summer.”
San Angelo Stock Show and Rodeo
Bareback riding leaders: 1. Leighton Berry, 92 points on Korkow Rodeo’s Tator Tot; 2. Cole Reiner, 88.5; 3. (tie) Jayco Roper and Cooper Cooke, 86; 5. Kade Berry, 85.5; 6. (tie) Taylor Broussard and Cole Hollen, 84.5; 8. Cooper Filipek, 84; 9. Keenan Hayes, 83.5; 10. (tie) Toby Deudney and Gauge McBride, 83; 12. (tie) Ethan Mazurenko and Daxtyn Feild, 82.
Tibba Smith of Hobbs, New Mexico, had a time of 2.1 seconds Sunday, April 5, at the San Angelo Rodeo.
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