New Masked Rider Takes Reins
April 20, 2009
Mascot fulfills childhood ambition by riding Midnight Matador for the 2009-2010 season.
Written by Cory Chandler
Brianne Aucutt-Hight will take the reins to Midnight Matador for 2009-2010, realizing a childhood goal.
Brianne Aucutt-Hight accepted the reins to Midnight Matador on April 17, becoming the Texas Tech University’s 2009-2010 Masked Rider.
In donning the rider’s mask, Aucutt-Hight, a senior animal science major with a specialization in production from Clovis, N.M., realizes a goal she set as a child after her parents attended a Red Raider football game and brought her an autographed card from the Masked Rider.
“The Masked Rider represents a great Texas Tech tradition and I am honored to have been selected for such a prestigious position,” she said.
Aucutt-Hight has ridden, trained and shown horses everywhere from ranches to rodeos throughout New Mexico and Texas, and competes on Texas Tech’s Ranch Horse Team. She served on the 2008-2009 Masked Rider Field Safety Team and also holds two rodeo queen titles: Pioneer Days Rodeo Queen and Eastern New Mexico State Fair Queen.
As the Masked Rider, she will make hundreds of appearances and put thousands of miles on the Masked Rider’s pickup as she crisscrosses the Southwest to promote Texas Tech spirit and goodwill at athletic events, parades, rodeos and other functions.
Ashley Hartzog, the 2008-2009 Masked Rider, traveled more than 13,000 miles to more than 155 appearances during her stint as mascot.
She held the Masked Rider’s reigns during a historic year for Texas Tech in which the football team defeated top-ranked Texas in a Lubbock shootout to clinch the university’s first no. 2 national ranking. She had appearances on "60 Minutes" and during "College Game Day’s" first trip to Lubbock and made the Masked Rider’s first run at a Texas Tech Baseball game.