Rodeo weekend is an important event and tradition for UT Martin, bringing in people from all around. It is a highly anticipated event for the community. This past weekend — Thursday, April 13 through Saturday, April 15 — the UT Martin rodeo team celebrated and hosted the 55th annual UT Martin spring college rodeo at the Ned McWherter Agricultural Pavilion.
It was a truly successful meet, especially for the UT Martin rodeo team. They showed out and won numerous events and even broke records.
On Friday, April 14, Jesse Keysaer set an arena record in steer wrestling, coming in at 3.4 seconds. This is the best in the 55-year history of the UT Martin rodeo. The UT Martin rodeo team also won six out of the nine events on this day, five being consecutive. Friday night, Cole Walker won in calf roping, goat tying was won by Jasmin Bakri, and Savannah Moran won barrel racing. It is easy to say that Friday was a very successful night for the UT Martin rodeo team.
Jesse Keysaer won overall in steer wrestling, Jack Smithson won overall in saddle bronc, and Emma Kate Wilder won the breakaway.
Overall, the UT Martin men’s team tallied 960 points and the UT Martin women’s team earned 460 points. With those scores, they both earned first-place finishes. Men’s second place was Missouri Valley College with 825 points. Women’s second place was West Alabama with 305 points.
This is the men’s team first home rodeo win since 2017 and the women’s second home victory in the last three years.
The next meet for the UT Martin rodeo team will be on April 27-29, where they will be traveling to Northwest Mississippi Community College in Senatobia, Mississippi. This will be their last meet of the regular season.
