SISTERS — Hermiston’s Jade Crossley and Heppner’s Blake Knowles sat in second place after opening-round slack at the 75th anniversary Sisters Rodeo on Thursday.

Crossley turned in a barrel racing time of 17.83 seconds to finish .02 off the pace of Taylor Jacob of Carnine, Texas.

Jacob is one of many out-of-state contestants looking to get a piece of the richest purse in rodeo this week, with 431 contestants from 25 states, Australia and Canada are making up the field.

But Oregon’s athletes were holding their own to start, and led two of the four events contested Thursday morning.

Steer wrestler Trevor Knowles of Mount Vernon led cousin Blake by .02 with a time of 4.3, and Baker’s Garrett Rogers was atop the team roping leaderboard with heeler Jake Minor of Ellensburg, Washington, with their time of 5.5.

The first performance will be held Friday night starting at 7 p.m. The Sisters Rodeo is the third stop on the Columbia River Circuit.

Prior to the rodeo, bull riders competed in the Xtreme Bull Riding on Wednesday with Montana’s Luke Gee winning the title by being the only rider to cover two bulls.

He scored 77 in both rounds, and he was awarded $3,083.39 in prize money.