Gray moving up bareback money list

Cheney bareback rider Ryan Gray continues his race up the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association standings.

 Just a week after winning twice, including his fourth straight win in Helena, Mont., Gray won almost $5,500 in capturing the title in Dodge City, Kan.

 Though he didn’t starting rodeoing until June because of injuries, Gray is now sitting 17th in the bareback standings with almost $40,000. He is less than $2,500 out of the 15th spot that would earn him a trip to the National Finals Rodeo for the seventh straight season.

 Trying to make up for lost time, Gray was up in Loveland, Colo., Monday night, his seventh straight day of riding. After taking today off he’s entered in New Mexico, Oklahoma and Missouri on consecutive days before going to Hermiston, Ore., on Friday and Omak on Saturday.

 Colbert tie-down roper Tyson Durfey has inched up to fifth place in the standings with more than $61,500, pretty much ensuring his trip to a sixth straight NFR.

 Shane Proctor of Grand Coulee has $123,070 to lead the bull riding standings by more than $32,000. Proctor, 26, has never been to the NFR. Since joining the PRCA in 2005, Proctor won a total of seven rodeos, four last year, but he has 11 this year, including the National Western Stock Show in Denver and Cheyenne Frontier Days.

Football

The Whitworth Pirates were picked to finish fourth in a preseason poll of Northwest Conference coaches.

For the first time coaches were not allowed to vote for their own school.

Whitworth will be without All-NWC running back Adam Anderson, who graduated. But the Pirates, who tallied 20 points in the poll, return every starter on the offensive line, including senior Emilio Sulpizio at center.

Defending champion Linfield is a strong favorite to repeat. The Wildcats, who advanced to the NCAA Division III second round last year and finished 9-2 after an unbeaten conference run, picked up five out of seven first-place votes and totaled 40 points.

Willamette had two first-place votes and four second-place votes to finish second with 34 points.

Pacific Lutheran was third with 26 points. Lewis & Clark (16) was fifth, followed by Puget Sound (11) and Pacific (7).

• Idaho Vandals junior Justin Veltung, a receiver/return specialist, is one of 50 players on the 2011 Paul Hornung Award Watch List.

The award, which was established in 2010, honors the versatility that became the trademark of former Green Bay Packers great and Notre Dame star Paul Hornung.

In two seasons, Veltung has amassed 1,717 all-purpose rushing yards, which includes 1,111 in kickoff returns, 504 in receptions and 102 rushing.

• The Carroll (Mont.) Fighting Saints will open the 2011 season as the top-ranked team in the NAIA Football Coaches Preseason poll.

It is the sixth time in school history, and first since 2008, that Carroll was picked No. 1 in preseason. The defending national champs grabbed all 14 first-place votes and totaled 314 points. Saint Xavier (Ill,) was second, followed by Mid-America Nazarene (Kan.), Saint Francis (Ind.) and Morningside (Iowa).