Celie Salmond

Nineteen-second runs in pole bending might not be frequent at the National High School Finals Rodeo, but they’re common enough that the cowgirls usually turn in a few in each round. That wasn’t the case in the first round at the 66th annual NHSFR, but we’ve got one on the board just one performance into the second round thanks to Montana’s Celie Salmond.

Riding 15-year-old Cass, Celie stopped the clock at 19.97 seconds to move to the lead in the round. Add that to her 20.122-second run in the first round on Wednesday morning and she’s sitting first in the average standings with a time of 40.219 seconds on two. While some contestants dread drawing up in the Wednesday-Wednesday draw, Celie wasn’t complaining.

“Actually, I was excited because I knew at previous rodeos that she got considerably faster if she ran twice in one day,” Celie said. “I’ve been here twice before and done pretty good in the first round, but always tipped poles in the second round. That was in my head tonight. I just wanted to get through them clean.”

The senior-to-be plans to sit back and relax as she watches the average race play out in front of her between now and Saturday night’s short round. There’s no doubt she’ll be among the top 20 in the average standings when the second round ends on Saturday morning.

“It’s nice to know that I’ve done all I can do,” she said. “This morning, she slipped on the end pole a little, but I knew that she had done what she needed to do. I just wanted to make the short round here because I never have, so I’m excited about that.”