The winners of the 2011 Calgary Stampede will be heading home with big smiles and some even bigger cheques.\u00a0 There was a lot of money handed out and there were even a few records beaten this year at the Stampede.<\/p>\n
In the saddle bronc, <\/em>Bradley Harter and Justin Berg qualified for Showdown Sunday after their Wildcard rides on Saturday.\u00a0 Bradley also made it to the top 4 round and placed 4th with his ride of 86 points.\u00a0 Luke Butterfield and Jesse Wright also got to ride in the Championship round and placed 2nd and 3rd with their 90 and 89 point rides.\u00a0 Chad Ferley of Oelrichs, SD however, was the cowboy who was able to ride his horse to a 92.5 point Championship win making himself $100,000 richer<\/p>\n In the bareback riding,<\/em> Matt Lait of Balzac, AB and Clint Cannon of Waller, TX were the top two cowboys placing in Wildcard Saturday to advance to Showdown Sunday.\u00a0 Clint Cannon was also able to make it to the top 4 round where he rode his horse for 92 points to cash in the $100,000 cheque and Bareback Championship.\u00a0 Kaycee Field was close behind with a 91 point ride.\u00a0 Steven Dent and Steven Peebles ended up third and fourth with their 89 and 88 point rides.<\/p>\n In the bull riding<\/em>, Canadian Tyler Thomson made it to Showdown Sunday after his ride on Saturday.\u00a0 Mike Lee of Decatur, TX also made it to Showdown Sunday after Wildcard Saturday, however Tyler was the only one out of the two who made it to the top 4 round.\u00a0 Tyler didn’t have much luck in his final ride as he ended up getting bucked off.\u00a0 Corey Navarre who also got another chance to ride after advancing to the top 4 also got bucked up.\u00a0 Mike Lee and Shane Proctor were the only two bull riders who covered their bulls.\u00a0 The bull rider who ended up walking away with the $100,000 cheque was Shane Proctor of Mooresville, NC.\u00a0 Shane rode his bull to 91 points.<\/p>\n In the tie-down roping<\/em>, the two cowboys from Wildcard Saturday who qualified to Showdown Sunday were Matt Shioza and Stran Smith.\u00a0 Stran Smith also qualified to make a run in the top four but a broken barrier to put him in 4th place with a time of 17.8 seconds.\u00a0 The big winner of the Stampede in the tie-down went to 21 year old Tuf Cooper of Decatur, TX.\u00a0 Tuf tied his calf to an arena record of 6.3 seconds.\u00a0 Clif Cooper came in second with a time of 8.6 while Shane Hanchey came in third with his time of 10.3 seconds.<\/p>\n In the steer wrestling, <\/em>Cochrane, AB cowboy Straws Milan advanced to Showdown Sunday with his 3.6 second run on Wildcard Saturday.\u00a0 Wade Sumpter of Fowler, CO also advanced to Sunday with his Wildcard run although he didn’t advance to the top 4 go.\u00a0 Matt Reeves and Trevor Knowles who advanced from the top 10 to the top 4 both missed their steers and ended up with no times.\u00a0 Billy Bugenig of Fernadale, CA who also made it to the top 4 go had a slower time then he would have wanted of 13.3 seconds.\u00a0 Straws Milan, who advanced from Wildcard Saturday and the top 10 round, who was the last cowboy to go, got his steer down in a time of 3.6 seconds making him walk away $100,000 richer.<\/p>\n In the barrel racing,<\/em> Canadian Lauren Byrne ran a time of 17.47 to advance to the Showdown Sunday.\u00a0 Nellie Williams joined Lauren with her time of 17.58.\u00a0 However, with a tipped barrel for Byrne and a slower time for Williams, these girls didn’t make it to the final 4 go at the chance to win the big prize.\u00a0 For the girls who did advance to the top 4, it was a race right until the end.\u00a0 Lindsay Sears of Nanton, AB was first out and ran a fast time of 17.26 on her horse Martha.\u00a0 Tammy Fisher then ran a 17.63 and Sue Smith right after her made it around the barrels in a time of 17.49.\u00a0 The last barrel racer out and the winner of the 2011 Calgary Stampede was Sydni Blanchard of Albuquerque, NM.\u00a0 Sydni clocked in the fastest time of the week with a 17.21.\u00a0 Blanchard set a record at this years Stampede that has never been done before and may never be done again.\u00a0 She won all four elimination rounds, the semi final and the championship round making her total earnings amount to $122,000, the most money won ever by a Stampede contestant.<\/p>\n