Carly Christian garnered first place honors in the barrel racing category at the Texas Tech Rodeo Association's 73rd Annual Rodeo, held near Lubbock at the end of October. The junior animal science major from Amarillo rode Sunshine, her five-year-old mare.

"She [Sunshine] is young, but really handles everything so good," Christian said. "I have ridden horses since before I could walk on my own. Both my parents rodeoed, so I was just born into it. My mom and dad have blessed me with the most amazing horses from the time I was little, and I could not do it without them."

As for her performance at the Texas Tech Rodeo, Christian said, "I had won the first round and knew I had a decent lead on a lot of the girls going into the short round. I just told myself I need to have a smooth, clean run. Sunshine, of course, out did herself and won the saddle for us."

The Texas Tech Rodeo Team competes in the Southwest region of the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association. Each school within the region puts on a separate rodeo with Texas Tech having one of the largest in the nation with approximately 700 entries annually.

The Texas Tech Rodeo Association began in 1947 and has hosted a rodeo every year since. Founded in 1923 as Texas Technological College, the rodeo team would compete with other groups in the area until the formation of the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association in 1949.

NIRA sanctions more than 100 college rodeos every year in the United States, and represents over 3,500 student athletes attending more than 135 member colleges and universities. Texas Tech's first rodeo team won the first Texas Intercollegiate Rodeo in 1947 at Hardin-Simmons University-Abilene.

CONTACT: Michael Orth, chairman, Department of Animal and Food Sciences, Texas Tech University at (806) 834-5653 or michael.orth@ttu.edu

1111NM20 / PHOTO: CT Designs Photography (above) & PORTRAIT PHOTO: Alicea Jare