Popko closes out CJRA career with distinction

Fallbrook High School senior Kerry Popko ended her California Junior Rodeo Association career by winning both the Pole Bending average and that event’s year-end title at the CJRA finals November 23-25 at the Riverside Rancheros arena.

The CJRA finals took place four weeks after the Rice Fire. Not only did Popko not ride Banjo while Fallbrook was evacuated for the fires, but the first time Popko rode Banjo following the fires it was determined that the horse had ash in his lungs and Banjo was given two additional weeks of rest.

Eighteen-year-old Popko spent the week before the CJRA finals riding Banjo on a daily basis. “I wanted to go in there with clean runs,” she said.

Banjo gave Popko the three runs she desired. “He just blew me away,” Popko said.

Popko, who rode Banjo, had an average (aggregate) of 62.73 seconds on three runs. She also won the first two go-rounds and placed second in the third go-round.

“I’m so incredibly happy about it,” Popko said.

Popko’s points for the go-round and average wins brought her season total to 413. Carolann Scott finished second in the season standings with 286 points, Bobbi Kushner placed third with 269 points, and Paige Connelly was fourth with 253 points. Connelly entered the state finals in seventh place but advanced three positions with two second-place go-round finishes and a second-place average.

Popko had entered the finals in first place with 196 points after placing second in the October CJRA competition. Scott entered the finals in second place with 172 points while Kushner, who won the October event, held third with 164 points. Former Bonsall resident Destri Devenport entered the finals fourth with 158 points while Tyla Treasure came into the weekend in fifth place with 148 points.

In the first go-round November 24 Popko had a time of 20.72 seconds. “I wasn’t expecting that going in,” she said.

Her goal was to keep up all the poles and avoid a five-second penalty for knocking down a pole. “I did not expect the time to be a 20,” she said.

Popko was the first of the ten pole benders to run. “I got to see what the competition was like,” she said.

Connelly had the second-place time at 21.50 seconds while Kaitlin Patton had a time of 22.15 seconds to place third.

The running order was reversed the following day, but being the last to run rather than the first wasn’t an impediment for Popko. “The ground wasn’t an issue,” she said.

Popko brushed two poles on her second run. “Hit them pretty hard, but they stayed up,” she said.

She completed her run in 20.93 seconds. “I wasn’t really going in for times,” she said. “I just needed to keep the poles up.”

Her time still placed atop the field. Connelly’s time of 21.30 seconds was worth second place while Patton was third at 21.63 seconds.

Although Popko eventually won the championship by a 127-point margin, the average was worth 72 points to the winner and the third go-round gave the first-place finisher 48 points, so Popko’s lead entering her final run November 26 was large but not secure.

“That didn’t take the pressure off me,” she said of the size of her points lead going into the third run.

Treasure posted a time of 20.38 seconds to win the final go-round. Popko obtained the performance’s second-place time at 21.08 seconds. “It wasn’t a disappointment,” she said of not winning the final go-round. “I didn’t care. Poles had to be up. I was being conservative.”

Popko still finished the go-round with a better time than Scott, whose run of 21.35 seconds earned her third for the day.

Popko’s run was good enough for her purposes even though she finished a place lower than she had on her first two runs. “It was just as important. I needed to be clean three runs for the average,” she said.

Popko was given a buckle for winning the average and a saddle for the year-end championship. Popko was still riding in a saddle she was given for her birthday in October 2001. “I didn’t want to go out and buy another saddle,” she said.

Popko explained that she wanted to win a saddle rather than buy a newer one. “It just shows my determination,” she said.

Although her CJRA career ended with the state finals, Popko will continue to use her old saddle for California High School Rodeo Association competition. “I don’t change things. It’s bad luck. If something’s going right you don’t switch things,” she said.

She will ride in the new saddle. “I want to get it worked in,” she said.

Popko had also won the Pole Bending average, although not the year-end title, three years earlier. She considered that the previous highlight of her CJRA career which ended with both the average and year-end titles. “I went out with a bang,” she said.

“It was a good couple of years,” she said of concluding her CJRA competition. “I made so many new friends.”

Popko will conclude the high school rodeo season and plans to compete in local jackpot races, but when the CJRA begins its 2008 season in February she doesn’t expect to be in the arena.

“I’m going to miss it,” she said. “I’m so happy with everything I’ve gotten out of it.”