It's been 43 years since a member of the Cisco College Rodeo

Team last won a National Championship, but Freshman Ty Harris has just ended that streak.

Harris beat out dozens of the Nation's top competitors to bring home the Title of National

Champion in Tie Down Roping from the College National Finals Rodeo in Casper, Wyoming.

Harris has been roping since the age of four, and was looking forward to the tough

competition he knew he would face at the CNFR.

"It's a very tough sport. It takes pretty good athletes because it's just a very tough sport;

there's a lot of variables," said Harris just before he left for the CNFR last week.

His time in Round One was 8.9 seconds, followed by 8.6 seconds in Round Two, and 8.0

seconds in Round Three. His quick work in the first three rounds set him up well for the Short

Round where he faced a feisty calf.

"I felt really good going into the Short Round; I had a good lead, but I didn't draw as

good of a calf as I kind of wanted to, but I just had to finish. I'm glad I had that big lead. I felt

good going into it with a lot of confidence," Harris said.

His time in the Short Round was 13.0 for a total time on all at 38.5 seconds, a full second

ahead of the second place finisher.

"It's been a pretty big goal of mine and I feel like I did a good job. I drew good and my

horse was good and it just all worked out," Harris said.

Not only did Harris win the National Calf Roping Championship, Harris was also named

2018 Rookie of the Year.

"It feels great. That was my goal going in, but its kind of hard to think about at the

beginning of the year. You know it's a long year, there are a lot of steps you have to go through

to win that title and I'm glad I did. It's pretty surreal," said Harris.

Now Harris has his sights set on the National Finals Rodeo. He plans to spend the rest of

the summer competing in even more Rodeos through the Professional Rodeo Cowboys

Association.