UNLV set to compete in regional finals

Wes Lockard and Jaymie Leach will lead the UNLV rodeo teams into this weekend's West Coast Regional Finals Rodeo at the South Point Equestrian Center.

The Rebels have won 25 men's and women's regional championships since the club sport was formed in 1993.

Top performers from Friday and Saturday will qualify for the 60th annual College National Finals Rodeo, which will be June 15 to 21 in Casper, Wyo.

Lockard, of Standish, Calif., leads the region in men's all-around, calf roping and steer wrestling.

Leach, of Roseburg, Ore., is second in all-around, and teammates Nellie Williams (barrel racing) of Cottonwood, Calif., and Kassi Venturacci (goat tying) of Fallon are first for the reigning women's regional championship team.

Performances will begin at 7 each night. For more information, visit SouthPointEventsCenter.com or UNLVrodeo.com.

• NEXT EVENT -- The South Point will host the Breeder's Invitational cutting horse competition May 14 to 23. Admission is free.

• PRO TOUR -- Logandale's Randon Adams is fifth among team roping heelers in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association standings. Jade Corkill of Fallon is second. ...

Las Vegas resident and UNLV student Colin McTaggart ranks eighth in the Xtreme Bull Riders tour.

• PBR -- Brazilian Guilherme Marchi leads the Professional Bull Riders standings after 19 of 32 events. Marchi has successfully ridden 80 percent of his bulls.

Former UNLV rodeo athlete Ross Coleman is eighth.

• INJURED -- Taos Muncy, who won the PRCA saddle bronc riding championship in December in Las Vegas, broke his right leg last month during a rodeo in Red Bluff, Calif.

The 20-year-old from Corona, N.M., sustained the injury when he was bucked off with his right foot hung up in the stirrup.

Muncy, seventh in the series standings, is expected to miss three to four months.

• HALL OF FAME -- The ProRodeo Hall of Fame will induct a four-man class July 12 in Colorado Springs, Colo. The inductees are all-around cowboy Paul Tierney of Oral, S.D.; team roper Bobby Hurley of Clarksville, Ark.; steer roper Shaun Burchett of Ranger, Texas; and saddle bronc rider Tom Reeves of Ranger.

Burchett will be honored posthumously.

Contact reporter Jeff Wolf at jwolf@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0247.