Cooper repeats as Mike Cervi Jr. Memorial champion
Jake Cooper won a second consecutive Mike Cervi Jr. Memorial Team Roping title in Tucson, Ariz., on Feb. 24, but this time he claimed the victory with Jade Corkill instead of his regular roping partner and twin brother, Jim Ross Cooper.
The Cooper brothers won the team roping event last year, which is held in conjunction with the annual La Fiesta de los Vaqueros (aka Tucson Rodeo).
Team ropers in the non-PRCA event at the Tucson (Ariz.) Rodeo Grounds were allowed to enter more than once with different partners. Jake missed on his first run with his brother, but was consistent with Corkill, the world record holder. Chad Masters, the 2007 world champion, and Corkill set the world and Wrangler National Finals Rodeo record with a 3.3-second run Dec. 11 in Las Vegas.
Jake Cooper of Monument, N.M., and Corkill, of Fallon, Nev., finished with a record time 37.73 seconds on five head and won $16,260 apiece. The mark eclipsed the 40.78-second total time from the Coopers’ win last year.
Jake Cooper credited his 15-year-old horse, Benny, for his part in the back-to-back wins.
“We drew really well, and I have a heading horse that fits the setup really well,” Jake Cooper said. “He made it a lot easier on me.”
The money won did not count toward the 85th Annual La Fiesta de los Vaqueros or the PRCA World Standings, but featured many of the same PRCA contestants entered in the rodeo.
The team roping event, which also is a fundraiser for the Justin Cowboy Crisis Fund, raised $13,260 this year and pushed the event’s total donations to the JCCF to $111,667 since 2002.
“For the Mike Cervi Jr. Memorial Team Roping to now have exceeded $100,000 in donations to the JCCF is incredible,” said Cindy Schonholtz, JCCF program manager. “We feel honored to be associated with the event’s organizers, Sherry Cervi, Mel Potter, George Aros and many others. It also is a privilege to be connected to the legacy of Mike Cervi Jr., and we’re very appreciative of their generosity.”
Cervi Jr. was a PRCA team roper from Marana, Ariz., who died in a private-plane crash in 2001 at the age of 30.
The event, which began in the 1980s, was previously known as the Aros Roping Classic and the Tubac Championship Roping. Arizona roping producer Aros changed the name to the Mike Cervi Jr. Memorial Team Roping when Cervi Jr.’s widow, Sherry – a two-time world champion barrel racer – along with her father, Mel Potter, expressed interest in establishing an event in Cervi Jr.’s honor.
A field of 91 teams participated in this year’s event.
“It’s a great thing for the cowboys,” Jake Cooper said.
