POPLARVILLE — The East Mississippi Community College men’s rodeo team claimed a second straight runner-up finish to open the Ozark Region’s spring slate by placing second again this past weekend at the Pearl River Community College Rodeo. EMCC’s women placed third at the three-day event that concluded Saturday evening at the Pearl River County Fairgrounds Arena.

Coming off last week’s reserve champion finish at the EMCC-hosted rodeo held at Meridian’s Lauderdale County Agri-Center, the Lions again placed second behind nationally top-ranked Missouri Valley College in men’s action. For the second week in a row, East Mississippi excelled in the team roping competition by claiming 310 team points in the event. Overall, the EMCC men finished with 560 total team points behind MVC’s winning total of 820 points. In the women’s team competition, West Alabama bested the field with 482 total team points. UT Martin and EMCC followed with 220 and 155 points, respectively.

In the team roping competition, EMCC’s Matt Watt, out of Kemper Academy, teamed with Southern Arkansas’ Booker McCutchen to finish first with 125 points apiece after posting a winning time of 5.2 seconds during Saturday’s championship round.

Also in team roping for EMCC, the tandem of Laine Moore (Albertville, AL) and Tanner Brown (Florence) totaled 130 points between them for their fifth-place tie. In addition, brothers Cooper and Cade Cowan, from Marshall Academy, weren’t able to keep their streak of three consecutive team roping regional wins going after failing to record a time during their second-round run. The duo tied for first place in the opening round with a time of 5.7 seconds to earn 55 points apiece.

The Lions compiled 190 team points in the steer wrestling competition, as Myles Neighbors (Benton, AR) placed second (150 points) with a pair of 5.6-second efforts. Moore earned an additional 40 points for his fifth-place finish in the event to go along with his team roping performance.

Also for the EMCC men, Gavin Lee (Poplarville) collected 60 team points for his fifth-place tie in the bareback riding competition, while Clay Livengood (Cleveland, NC) garnered 120 individual points for his second-place showing in tie-down roping with times of 10 and 11 seconds.

On the women’s side for EMCC, top-ranked Jaylie Matthews maintained her national lead among 2021-22 National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association barrel racers by claiming her 12^th career regional event title and fifth of the current season. Her times of 14.52 and 14.2 seconds earned her 155 points at the PRCC event to give her 1,075 total points in seven events this season. The Wynne, Ark., native previously had three first-place finishes as the 2019-20 Ozark Region champion and followed up with four titles in her specialty event last season.

Also for the EMCC women, Josie Luttrell (Morganfield, KY) grabbed 72 individual points for her fourth-place finish in the breakaway roping competition.

Coach Morgan Goodrich’s East Mississippi rodeo teams will next compete at the University of Tennessee at Martin rodeo, April 7-9.