Mote wins second Cup Finale

Last year, Mote of Redmond, Ore., didn't advance past the preliminary rounds and later watched Lan LaJeunesse advance to the finals and finish second, winning a truckload of money in the process. Ultimately, Mote lost the lead in the world standings and the world title to LaJeunesse on the final day of the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo.

Mote was the picture of consistency during the five-round, four-day Finale, placing in every round. He posted scores of 90, 92 and a pair of 88s in the preliminary rounds in claiming the average title, then came back Sunday with an 87 in the semifinals that clinched a spot in the finals.

The USSTC Cup Finale was the crowning event of the 2002 summer Wrangler ProRodeo Tour. During the 10-stop Tour, cowboys and cowgirls competed for series points at the final rounds of major PRCA-sanctioned rodeos. The top 12 contestants in each of rodeo's events after the Tour came to Dallas for a shot to win part of the largest regular-season purse in professional rodeo.

Mote wasn't the only cowboy to claim his second Cup. Team ropers Wade Wheatley of Hughson, Calif., and Kyle Lockett of Ivanhoe, Calif., won two preliminary rounds, tied for the semifinal-round title, then still had some left for the finals. The team, who won the Cup at the winter Finale at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas in 2000, caught their final-round steer in 4.7 seconds, capping a weekend in which each bagged a Finale-record $35,130.

The rest of Sunday's champs were first-time Finale winners, and two were Finale rookies.

Calf roper Rick Kieckhefer of Prescott, Ariz., didn't buckle under the pressure. He entered the Finale in the final spot and pretty much stayed under the radar, winning money in just one round and finishing fifth in the average. But on Sunday, the grandson of 1946 world calf roping champion and ProRodeo Hall of Famer Chuck Sheppard came through when it mattered, finishing second in the semifinals and winning the Cup with a 6.9-second run in the final. He won $22,025.

Bull rider Beau Hill of West Glacier, Mont., made a splash early as the only one to ride his first two bulls. He cooled off later, but came back Sunday with two rides, a 90 in the semifinals and an 88 in the finals aboard Beutler & Son Rodeo Co.'s Swamper. His final-round 88 was matched by Myron Duarte, but Hill won the Cup title and $23,880 on a tiebreaker. By rule, all ties are broken by rank in the previous round. Duarte was bucked off in the semifinal.

Bob Lummus, a burly steer wrestler from Folsom, La., was the 2001 regular-season earnings leader, but he couldn't keep the lead at the Wrangler NFR. Lummus, who entered the Finale in 15th place, won one round and finished second in two others in the preliminaries in claiming the average, then kept it going Sunday. He stopped the clock in a whopping 3.2 seconds in the final round, tying a Finale record, and giving him the Cup and an equally as whopping $32,730.

Saddle bronc rider Glen O'Neill of Didsbury, Alberta, who like Lummus led the standings coming into the 2001 Wrangler NFR but was caught from behind, won his first Finale by riding Kesler Rodeo's Painted Smile Dip for 90 points. The Aussie turned Canadian, who split the semifinal-round title three ways, won $25,770.

Barrel racer Janae Ward of Addington, Okla., a third-generation Wrangler NFR contestant, came into her second Finale ranked No. 19 in the world standings. She jumped well into the top five after winning the Cup title and $25,240, racing around the pattern in 12.69 seconds in the finals - the only one to have a clean run in the round.

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