Barton wins World Championship

Milam County has a World Champion breakaway calf roper.  

Connor Barton recently competed at the world’s largest junior high rodeo in Huron, S.D.  

While in Huron, he placed eighth in the first round with a time of 3.13 seconds, placed first in the second round with a time of 2.42 (and also fastest time of the entire week), and placed second in the short round with a time of 2.85 and first in the average overall with a total of 8.35 seconds on three head which allowed him to be crowned the World Champion. 

Prizes he won in South Dakota include a Todd Slone saddle, three Gist buckles, a $1,050 Cinch scholarship, many other prizes and jackpot money.

All of these great runs wouldn’t have been possible without a great horse.  He rode a mare named Bullet owned by Macie Vaculin of Cameron.   

He is the son of Jason and Monica Barton of Cameron and he will be entering the ninth grade at Yoe High School in the fall.

Created in 2004, the National High School Rodeo Association junior high division was established for sixth, seventh and eighth graders to serve as a feeder system into the high school ranks of the association.  

Each summer, the “best of the best” from each state and province qualify for the National Junior High Rodeo Finals.  Represented at the National Finals were 43 states, Canada, Mexico, and Australia and a total of 1150 contestants.  To qualify for the National Finals Connor placed in the top 10 in his region which qualified him for state of Texas finals which was held in May in Gonzales.  Connor then placed 3rd in the state of Texas out of 100 ropers.  The top 4 in each event in the state qualified for Nationals.  At the National Finals, Connor competed against 161 ropers in his event.

Team Texas walked away with six World Champion titles, three Reserve Champion titles, and the All-Around Champion title which clenched the National Team title for Texas.