By Bryan Painter

In 15 runs at the 2012 Timed Event Championship of the World, K.C. Jones of Burlington, Wyo., has had just two times longer than the 20-second mark.

Here’s why that’s impressive: At the Timed Event, a cowboy has to work both the heading and heeling of the team roping, tie-down calves, bulldog steers and finish off a round with steer roping. In all that, his slowest efforts through three rounds was a 24.1-second run in the first round of steer roping and a 23.5 in the second-go. Those aren’t slow, but rather smart runs as Jones is the only cowboy in the 20-man field with a time less than 200 seconds after Saturday afternoon’s third round.

Jones — the winner of Timed Event titles in 1993, ’96, ’99 and 2001  — leads the average with 183.2 second on 15 head. Russell Cardoza of Terrebone, Ore., is second with 238.4; Josh Peek, the 2010 Timed Event winner, is third at 24.22; Kyle Lockett of Visalia, Calif., who last year won his second TEC title, is fourth with 254.3; and Jess Tierney of Hermosa, S.D., at 257.0 on 15.

Jones, 44, led after four runs, dropped back for a short period and then re-gained the lead after seven head, the tie-down roping of the second round. He’s been atop the leader board ever since. He also has the third and fourth fastest rounds.

At the Timed Event, a 60-second penalty is given instead of a no-time. In the steer wrestling alone, there were 10 contestants with 60s in the third round. Among those was Lockett, who had been in second in the average for eight of the past nine runs. With that, Peek made his move. After hanging around in the third to fifth slots in the average for the previous eight runs, Peek clocked a 6.4 in the steer wrestling to move to second in the average with 216.9 on 14.

While there have 21 total 60s in bulldogging this year, Jones has totaled 20.1 on three steer wrestling runs.

But the shuffling wasn’t over after steer wrestling in the third go. Peek had a 25.3 in the steer roping. Cardoza then used a 19.3 to move to second in the average.

In a close look, even though Cardoza had a 60 in the tie-down of the second round, he’s never been out of the top 10 in the average. And Peek has been no lower than seventh on the last 11 runs and no lower than fourth on the last six.

RESULTS
AVERAGE LEADERS: 1. K.C. Jones, 183.2 seconds; 2. Russell Cardoza, 238.4; 3. Josh Peek, 242.2; 4. Kyle Lockett, 254.3; 5. Jess Tierney, 257.0; 6. Chance Kelton, 289.5; 7. Daniel Green, 292.6; 8. Chad Masters, 294.3; 9. Paul David Tierney, 302.0; 10. Clayton Hass, 314.4; 11. Paul Tierney, 314.9; 12. Jim Ross Cooper, 331.6; 13. Scott Snedecor, 336.1; 14. Dean Gorsuch, 282.4; 15. JoJo LeMond, 398.7; 16. Bryce Davis, 424.0; 17. Jimmie Cooper, 436.1; 18. Landon McClaugherty, 464.0; 19. Steve Duhon, 486.7; 20. Broc Cresta, 548.4 (Injured).
ROUND 3: 1. K.C. Jones, 60.4; 2. Paul Tierney, 67.0; 3. Russell Cardoza, 72.8; 4. Josh Peek, 85.5; 5. Jess Tierney, 93.4; 6. Chance Kelton, 94.7; 7. Daniel Green, 107.6; 8. Kyle Lockett, 120.7; 9. Chad Masters, 123.9; 10. Paul David Tierney, 126.3; 11. Landon McClaugherty, 135.5; 12. Bryce Davis, 138.4; 13. Jim Ross Cooper, 146.5; 14. Clayton Hass, 158.7; 15. Scott Snedecor, 161.0; 16. JoJo LeMond, 168.7; 17.  Dean Gorsuch, 189.1; 18. Jimmie Cooper, 190.2; 19. Steve Duhon, 208.3; Broc Cresta injured.
FASTEST ROUND LEADERS: 1. Chad Masters, 57.6; 2. Russell Cardoza, 58.6; 3. K.C. Jones, 59.5; 4. K.C. Jones, 60.4; 5. Paul David Tierney, 61.9; 6. Kyle Lockett, 62.2.