District VI began the 2008 high school rodeo season at the Eldon Evans Expo Center's Shawn Davis Arena Friday night.

The rodeo opened with no qualified rides in bareback riding but concluded with four riders going the full eight seconds in bull riding. Colton Bedke of Oakley won the event with a score of 62 points followed by Jace Hutchison of Raft River with a 59 and Brody Osterhout of Declo scoring a 51 to finish third.

"It was pretty much just another bull ride," said Bedke. "He had me off for about a half a second but I got back in the middle and made the ride."

Bedke closely watched Cody Wadsworth of Kimberly on the bull Bedke drew for Saturday night. After six seconds, Wadsworth's ride stopped bucking and stood as though waiting for the 8-second buzzer to blow.

"He just had a bad night," said Bedke. "I've been looking forward to getting on him."

The Kimberly cowboy was given a score of only 28 points and finished fourth. Wadsworth was offered a re-ride which the junior turned down. Asked why he declined a second ride, Wadsworth said "Not for just a few more points. I still had calf roping and I didn't want to take a chance of getting hurt."

Wadsworth placed in the top four in each of his events. He also teamed with partner Megan Crist to take second in team roping and added a pair of third-place finishes in tie-down and steer wrestling.

Despite a "little" bobble in her dismount in goat tying that actually could have turned into a bad wreck, Crist had a good opening night, notching first-place finishes in breakaway and pole bending.

A few months ago, Crist lost the horse that she had ridden for many years and was aboard a new horse Friday in their first competition together. On her get off in the goat tying, Crist's four-legged partner crossed in front of her knocking her to the ground. Crist was able to complete the event still turning in a time of 12.75.

The breakaway was a close race with Crist winning with a 3.19-second run followed by Kindee Wilson of Filer who was also under four seconds at 3.32. Amanda Coats of Kimberly was third, recording a 4.47.

"I really thought I broke out in breakaway," said Crist.

Crist had a time of 21.347 seconds in poles. Alyssa Koch of Filer (22.005) was second, Hali Stutzman of Kimberly (22.159) was third, Wilson (22.511) placed fourth and Paige Yore of Declo (22.651) finished fifth.

Yore was able to rack up some first-place points by winning the goat tying with the fastest time of 8.20 seconds and grabbing a second in barrel racing and a fourth in breakaway. Katie Vierstra of Filer (8.88) was second in goats and Coats (9.53) finished third.

Jessea Kack of Filer blazed through the barrel pattern at 15.487 seconds followed by Yore (15.777) and Coats, who had a time of 15.857.

A winning time of 9.45 seconds in team roping by Minico sisters Kelli and Laura Kindig was more than two seconds faster than the second-place time of Wadsworth and Crist (12.10).

On the boy's side, Jarrett VanBiezen from Filer roped his steer in 11.69 seconds to win the tie-down roping with Brandon Matthews of Oakley at 13.86 finishing second. Wadsworth (14.76) took third and Dustin Adams of Raft River (15.00) was fourth. Wyatt Holtman of Raft River made a strong run at 5.48 seconds to win the steer wrestling with Raul Hurtado of Oakley (7.33) in at second and Wadsworth third (11.37).

There were no qualified rides in saddle bronc.

For results from Saturday's action, see Monday's Times-News.