The four-man team from Palermo placed in the Top 3 of all five events to win the first night of the Ranch Rodeo on Wednesday at the North Dakota State Fair.

The cowboys of Wade Skaar, Jeff Ruud, Garrett Hoelscher and Shane Pappa dominated with 54 points, beating out second place J-H Ranch from Velva by 10 points. There was a two-way tie for third place between Towner’s North Country Mercantile and Stanley’s L & H Ranch.

The five events — steer mugging, range branding, wild cow milking, trailer loading and the trailer relay — produced four different event winners among the 12 North Dakota teams. The fastest score in each event received 12 points and cascaded down to the slowest time getting a single point.

Towner’s Moose Bar & Grill/Mouse River Air got off to a fast start with the steer mugging win, but failed to get a Top 5 in the other four events and settled for eighth overall.

Alex Eisen/MDN A member of the J-H Ranch holds onto a cow in the wild cow milking competition at the All Seasons Arena in Minot.

The powerhouse Ranch Hands got their lone win in the Range Branding competition with a quick time of 27.56 seconds. It was nearly 10 seconds faster than the L & H Ranch squad comprised of Dakota Stammen, Monty Lund, Justin Lund and Tyler Harstad.

After a rough start due to a no time/no score in the first round because their steer broke free, North Country Mercantile made up for it with a win in the wild cow milking contest. Justin Payne, Bill Kuntz, Vegas Varty and Kurt Kramer posted a blazing time of 22.06 seconds.

North Country Mercantile also won the final event of the night, the Trailer Relay with a time of 1:09.31. So, had they kept their steer tied down in the opening event, they could have challenged for the overall win.

The closest finish of the evening was in the trailer loading competition. Arrow B Ranch from Willow City with Jacob Bernstein, Patrick Monson, Jeff Boettcher and Justin Wingard shut their trailer door after a 22.99-second run, a little under a second faster than J-H Ranch with Jim Hystad, Marty Hildre, Kylie Hildre and Jason Jenson.

The yearly fan favorites, the Mountrail Williams Electric Cowgirls (Bonita Hornberger, Hannah Hornberger, Jodi Bohmbach and Jess Niemitalo), took 10th place overall with their best finish being in the trailer relay (fifth).

Another new Ranch Rodeo competition will be held this evening at 7 p.m. at the All Seasons Arena with a pre-show Mutton Bustin’ competition at 6:45 p.m.

Alex Eisen covers Minot State athletics, the Minot Minotauros and high school sports. Follow him on Twitter @AEisen13.