Pueblo’s Casey Colleti gets hometown welcome

Casey Colletti has one huge advantage over the other competitors at this week’s 78th Pikes Peak or Bust Rodeo.

Instead of staying at a hotel, all it takes for him to get to the Norris-Penrose Event Center is a 40-minute drive from Pueblo. It appears the fans appreciate his proximity, seeming to cheer a little louder when the announcer says his hometown.

“Or maybe it’s just me,” he joked about the cheering.

Nonetheless, Colletti is going to stick around longer. On Thursday night, he was one of three riders to qualify for Saturday’s championship round, as he finished with 82 points in bareback riding behind Zack Brown, of Red Bluff, Calif., who finished with 85 points.

At 32, Colletti jumps at the chance to compete in front of a so-called home crowd.

“It’s pretty dang cool,” he said. “I always come to Pikes Peak or Bust. It’s one of my favorite rodeos of the year.”

Black Forest’s Sam Stuart also competed in the event but was not one of the day’s three qualifiers for the championship round.

A ‘dinosaur’ among young competitors

Kelly Timberman became a PRCA world champion in bareback riding in 2004 to go along with $1.2 million in prize money during his 18-year career in the sport.

And the Mills, Wyo., native is still going strong at age 42.

Take, for example, his performance Thursday night in bareback riding: He finished with 78.5 points, enough to secure the third and final qualifying spot for Saturday’s championship round. He competed in a field of mostly 20- and 30-somethings.

How has he been in the sport this long?

When he’s not competing, he’s focused on his nutrition, his weight training and even his stretching. And he’s fine with being one of the veteran riders.

“In my event, I’m a dinosaur,” Timberman said. “I’m older than everybody by not quite 10 years but pretty close.”

Still, he’s not quite ready to retire.

“If I wanna go for another year next year, I will,” Timberman said. “If I don’t feel like it, I just won’t.”

Pearson can’t recreate magic in qualifying round

What is it like to be a reigning world champion?

Your life changes almost immediately.

Just ask Tyler Pearson, the Louisville, Miss., native who won the 2017 world title in steer wrestling. In the rodeo world, he became a household name and fans study his accomplishments and earnings.

And then there’s the pressure of repeating.

“You don’t wanna settle for nothing less,” Pearson said.

On Thursday, he showed that road is not easy to travel. He failed to qualify for Saturday’s championship in the event after he recorded a turn of 5 seconds. That was just 0.2 seconds behind Kyle Irwin, of Robertsdale, Ala.

Ty Erickson, of Helena, Mont., placed first in a time of 4.2 seconds.

The top three qualifiers in each rodeo event during the four qualifying rounds move onto Saturday night’s championships, which begin at 7 p.m.

Before Thursday’s qualifying round, Pearson knew the competition was fierce and that it would help him get back to the top spot.

“To get that, it was a blessing,” he said about winning a world title. “It was great for our family and hopefully, we can do it again.”

chhun sun, the gazette