Ashton Glascock among 7 SAU Rodeoers going to College National Finals

2017 May 26

Southern Arkansas University Rodeo's Ashton Glascock has earned a trip to the College National Finals in Casper, Wyo., in June.

Glascock finished the season placing among the Top 10 in breakaway roping and goat tying and was on the SAU Women's Ozark Reserve Champions team. She is a senior English major from Hartsburg, Missouri .

SAU Rodeo Coach William "Rusty" Hayes called this year's team "some of the strongest competitors I've ever seen."

Each of the seven team members who qualified for the National Finals from SAU will take his or her own horse and equipment to Wyoming. "We'll all leave from different places," Hayes said. "It can take 24 hours to drive up there. They'll be taking their own horses, their own trucks and trailers - all that's their personal stuff. We'll drive 1,300 miles through every kind of weather. You worry about motors and bearings and everything else that can go wrong between here and Casper. You never know what you're gonna hit."

Hayes has been rodeo coach since he started at SAU in 2005 and has won two Individual Championships so far. SAU Rodeo won the national title in Hayes' fourth year in the program. "We've won four top 10 team finishes, and I can't keep count of all the third- and fourth-place finishes," he said. This will be his 12th trip to the College Finals.

Hayes said winning another national title would shed more light on the SAU program. "It helps us recruit more quality kids and just makes everyone proud. Generations know about our program; it really is a tradition for a lot of families."

The rodeo program remains one of the most diverse on campus, he said. "We are recruiting nationwide. We've had kids here from 38 states and a Canadian province. We have them from California, Hawaii, Indiana, Missouri and Alabama."