Jackie Crawford and Josie Conner each roped a 2.6 in the Puyallup, Washington, finals to split the Cinch Playoff Series win and $12,225 apiece, and the identical check landed on two different seasons.
Crawford advanced second out of Set 1 on a 5.9 average, going 3.1second on her first calf and 2.8 on her second. Conner advanced third out of Set 2 with a 5.8 two-head average going 3.1 on her first and 2.7 seconds on her second calf. Both were 2.5 in Sunday’s semifinals to split second and third behind Haiden Thompson’s 2.4, and both came back to the four-woman final on cold, muddy ground.
Conner, of Iowa, Louisiana, had never gotten this far at Puyallup.
“This was actually the first time that I’ve ever advanced out of my set at Puyallup,” Conner said.
She fished her semifinal loop on at 2.5 aboard Im Countin Checques, “Checkers,” the mare she bought from Montana Brown in June.
“She was excellent right there. She carried the rope good, and that usually doesn’t work for me,” Conner said. “I’m usually not a fisher, and if I do try it, it usually never works. So I think it just was my day, and I was happy to have it.”
Crawford, of Stephenville, Texas, roped the weekend on Catts Hot Sauce, “Tabasco,” a horse she bought this spring off Cheyenne Britain, who works for her, and had been third string. Juke came up sore with a quarter crack that got into his hairline, and Trojan was home after a trip to the Run For A Million in Las Vegas.
“I was like, well, little buddy, Tabasco, you’re gonna have to step up, and this is kind of his biggest stage,” Crawford said. “He saw the big screen right at the end of the first round and almost dumped me, but by the end of it he was settled in, and even with all the distractions around him, he backed in the box and worked his tail off every time.”
Two Ladders, One Check
Crawford went into Puyallup No. 26 in the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association world standings at $62,052 and came out No. 21 at $76,032, counting $1,755 from the long rounds. That took her from roughly $24,800 out of the top 15 to $10,792 behind Shelby Boisjoli-Meged for the last National Finals Breakaway Roping seat.
She built the season around it.
“Puyallup has kind of been my whole thing. I haven’t just rodeoed,” Crawford said. “I took the whole Fourth of July off and took another week or so off to get Creed started in school, so I really concentrated on that tour finale, because I just had this thing that if it worked out, that I could make the finals and hit the right spots, that I would do it. If not, it was all good.”
What she gave the entries up for was family time.
“It’s definitely trying to figure out how to make all the pieces work,” Crawford said. “The kids and I, we do a lot of that stuff out on the road, so it’s just trying to get that family time together. As a competitor, it’s hard to pull back and slow down, but obviously those times are just super fun.”
Getting into Puyallup’s top four was the point—it put her in the Sioux Falls field. Now she isn’t going to chase every entry between here and the cutoff.
“Going to Puyallup, that was kind of my last straw of having a shot, being within striking distance,” she said. “I’m not gonna try to go to every single little one necessarily to try to make it. I’m just gonna bank on Sioux Falls.”
Conner’s weekend didn’t move her a spot. She was No. 4 going in and No. 4 coming out, at $142,284. What it moved was the gap in front of her—Rylee George led her by about $14,700 before Puyallup and leads her by $4,219 now.
“I definitely still have my foot all the way on the gas. There’s still a lot of money left in the season,” Conner said. “The ropers that I’m behind are great ropers. I’m just roping to try to put together as much money as possible, and then if I’m in a position to win a gold buckle when it comes down to the finals, then that’ll be a very blessed thing. But right now I’m just taking it one calf at a time.”
Both turned for home. Conner turned out of Pendleton, Oregon, and was 1.8 for second and $3,346 at Salt Lake City. Crawford roped at Pendleton and drew a strong one. Both go to Abilene, Texas, on Friday and to Mandan, North Dakota, this weekend—Conner up Saturday, Crawford Sunday—and both are headed to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where the top four out of Puyallup advance to the Governor’s Cup.
