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Deskovick wins Riverdale steer wrestling

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By Joe Naiman

Matt Deskovick had the fastest Steer Wrestling time at the May 5 Riverdale Rodeo.

The Ramona cowboy took 6.5 seconds to obtain the $437 first-place earnings.

“I finally won something. It’s been a while,” Deskovick said.

Blaine Jones of Templeton was the hazer who guided Deskovick’s steer. Deskovick made his run with two-time National Finals Rodeo qualifier Ethen Thouvenell holding the event lead at 7.6 seconds.

“I had a pretty good steer. I thought I had a steer I could win it with,” Deskovick said.

Deskovick doesn’t consider 6.5 seconds to be a bad time at Riverdale.

“That arena up there is set up really different,” he said. “The box is really deep.”

That gives the steer more of a head start than at other rodeos.

“That’s why all the times are longer than normal, because you’ve got to go so far,” Deskovick said.

“I got out pretty good,” he said. “He (the steer) ran pretty good.”

Deskovick rode Waylon.

“He worked really good. I was pretty happy with him,” Deskovick said.

The Ramonan also owns Panther, the horse Jones used to guide Deskovick’s steer.

Thouvenell settled for the second-place check. Mason Malone, a 2009 Ramona High School graduate who made his Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association Steer Wrestling debut the weekend of May 3-5, placed third with a time of 7.7 seconds to earn $219.

Malone’s first PRCA Steer Wrestling run was at the Kern County Sheriff Reserve Stampede Days Rodeo which took place May 3-4 in Bakersfield. His time of 5.4 seconds split sixth, seventh, and eighth place with Clay Gravatt of Riverside and 2012 world champion Luke Branquinho of Los Alamos, earning each of those cowboys $74. Two other Ramona cowboys placed at Bakersfield; Cameron Elston had a Tie-Down Roping run of 10.9 seconds to split fifth and sixth and earn $362 while Marcus Battaglia was a Team Roping header and partnered with heeler Jordan Ketscher of Squaw Valley for a seventh-place time of 10.8 seconds and $359.

Malone did not place in the Steer Wresting at the May 4-5 Stonyford Rodeo, but his time of 11.3 seconds in the Tie-Down Roping placed fourth and was worth $426 in earnings.

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