Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Salvo finishes third at nationals

Nat Holland El Defensor Chieftain Reporter

Horse Springs roper Johnny Salvo finished third in tie-down roping competition at the National College Finals Rodeo, held in Casper, Wyo., June 14-20.

"I was hoping to win it and everything, but I'm happy to get third," said Salvo. "They had some tough cows. They were a little bigger and kicked a lot."

The cantankerous calves caused more trouble than usual when the ropers tried to tie them down, which resulted in higher time averages for most ropers.

"I got first (in tie-down roping) last time, and I thought that I could again," said Salvo. "I just never really got the ball rolling up there (in Casper) this year."

Salvo finished with times of 14.9, 11.2 and 15.9 seconds in the first three goes. He finished 17.7 seconds in the final go, which was restricted to the top 12 ropers after the first three rounds.

The top tie-down roper was Cody Prescott of Southern Arizona University.

Salvo attends New Mexico State University, where he competes with the Aggies rodeo team.

The NMSU men's team finished 13th overall out of 57 college teams at the finals and the women's team finished sixth out of 29 teams.

Salvo also competed in team roping as a heeler with partner Wyatt Altoff.

"My partner missed the first two, so that didn't do too well," said Salvo.

The pair turned in one successful time of 12.7 seconds in the third go.

Failing to rope the calf in any round is enough to effectively eliminate ropers from the final go and any shot at a championship.

Future Plans

Salvo started another rodeo run on Tuesday, June 30, where he will compete in about a half dozen rodeos in Arizona that are timed around the Fourth of July weekend. Outside of the college rodeo, Salvo will hit between 10 and 15 pro rodeos this summer, and also some amateur rodeos.

"All-in-all the pro rodeos are tougher. There's the older guys who are really tough and about five or six guys who were also at the college finals who are also at the all the pro rodeos," said Salvo. The amateur rodeos are a chance "to make a little extra (money) while you are gone."

Salvo plans to finish his education at NMSU and then, "I'm going to try to rodeo professionally for a while," he said. "My goal has always been to make it to the National Finals Rodeo."

Salvo says he plans to attend more pro rodeos to gear up for an eventual pro career and "when I'm not in college anymore, I'll try to hit it as hard as I can."

nholland@dchieftain.com

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