Dry weather greeted Fifth District high school rodeo cowboys and cowgirls at Carey's Blaine County Fairgrounds last weekend—a nice change after Jerome's mud May 2.
Wood River's Haillie Taylor enjoyed the Carey visit, too.
Besides winning Friday's barrel racing and polebending go-rounds, Wood River High freshman Taylor picked up 18 points with partner Latner Straley in team roping. That extended her girls' all-around lead from 18 to 31 points.
With just one rodeo left, Taylor now has a 222-191 cushion over fellow Fifth District rookie Valene Lickley of Valley after four of the five rodeos on the regular-season circuit.
But it's possible that Taylor could win the girls' all-around title during the district finals May 22-23 at Gooding County Fairgrounds without winning any season events.
For instance, in barrel racing Jerome's Samantha Logan kept nipping at Taylor's heels at Carey, trimming her season-long lead in the barrels from six to three points. Taylor leads Logan 74-71 in barrels.
Taylor stayed one point behind leader Lickley in the poles, 64-63. She fell a spot in breakaway roping—Lickley now with a commanding 70 points and Taylor fifth at 22. Taylor dropped two spots in goat tying to fourth behind Jerome's Mattie MacGregor.
On the upside Taylor and Straley jumped from 11th to sixth in team roping, with 26.
At Carey last weekend, Taylor scored the 10 first-place points in barrel racing Friday with a 18.064-second time and placed fifth Saturday, Logan winning at 18.047. In goats, Taylor was third Friday at 10.320 and won polebending, 21.331.
Taylor capped an excellent Friday night with she and Straley's second-place team roping finish, 16.530. On Saturday, she was second behind Lickley in the poles and clocked an even better team roping time with Straley, 12.900 for second place.
Last year's all-round Fifth District boys' king Cy Eames of Gooding extended his lead in the 2009 boys' ranks to 206-146 over J-2 Bridges of Valley, with Gooding's Justin Parke in third place with 132.
The Idaho State High School finals are June 15-20 at Bannock County Fairgrounds, Pocatello. The final cow cutting event of the spring season was Tuesday, May 12 at Danny Thomason's arena in Jerome.
