COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Ty Atchison worked behind the scenes at 30 to 40 PRCA rodeos last year while employed by the Harry Vold Rodeo Company and quickly felt the frustration of "feeding the horses you want to get on." It was the nudge he needed to make him realize he wanted to compete full time and see what he could accomplish, the nudge he needed to go from backstage into the spotlight he found Aug. 29 at the Kitsap County Fair & Stampede in Bremerton, Wash.

Atchison, 23 and in his fourth season as a PRCA card holder, had the biggest win of his career at Thunderbird Stadium, his first win in a Wrangler Million Dollar Tour event presented by Justin Boots.

The Jackson, Mo., cowboy drew one of the elite saddle bronc horses in the sport and stayed on Wyoming's Miss Congeniality of the Powder River string for 89 points and a five-point win over five-time World Champion Billy Etbauer and Cody DeMoss.

"Miss Congeniality is one of those horses I've always wanted the chance to ride," Atchison said. "She met my expectations and then some. That horse is just the epitome of saddle bronc riding.

"It's funny, when I got the first text message about my draw a week before the rodeo, I just saw 'Powder River' and 'Wyoming's Miss,'" Atchison said. "It didn't register with me that it was Miss Congeniality, which may have been a good thing. I had five days where I wasn't so excited and nervous."

Atchison's check for $4,446 at Bremerton lifted his season total to $32,766, moving him from 28th to 23rd in the PRCA World Standings. His money total for the year is just shy of his total earnings from his first three seasons.

While working for Vold, Atchison competed in fewer than 20 PRCA rodeos last year, winning or sharing titles in Tupelo, Miss., Hattiesburg, Miss., Millington, Tenn., Forrest City, Ark., and Pueblo, Colo., finishing 68th in the world standings with $12,671.

This year, traveling with Cody and Heith DeMoss, Atchison has already competed in more than 80 rodeos.

"It's been a great year," Atchison said. "Those guys (the DeMoss brothers) have been great to me. Before this year, I thought rodeo was pretty much cut and dried, but they've taught me so much about how to enter and how to compete. They know all the horses and all the stock contractors.

"And it's great to travel with guys who show you this life can be fun. We pretty much have a blast every day."

Matt Shiozawa moved a step closer to qualifying for the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo for the fourth time in five years with his tie-down roping win at Bremerton.

Shiozawa, of Chubbuck, Idaho, had a time of 15.5 seconds on two head to edge Sterling Smith by a tenth of a second. With additional checks at rodeos in Kennewick, Wash., and Tremonton, Utah, Shiozawa finished the Aug. 28-30 weekend with $6,665 to push his season earnings to $68,231 and solidify his hold on sixth place in the PRCA World Standings.

Veterans David Key and Rich Skelton won the two-head average in team roping with a time of 8.5 seconds, a half-second ahead of world standings leaders Chad Masters and Jade Corkill.

The outcome delayed Corkill taking over the regular-season earnings record for heelers; he is $877 behind Skelton's record of $110,626, set in 2000.

Other champions at Bremerton were bareback riders Clint Cannon and Ryan Gray (87 points), steer wrestlers Tommy Cook and Shawn Greenfield (7.5 seconds on two head), bull rider Beau Schroeder (89 points) and barrel racer Sue Smith (35.06 seconds on two runs).