The Chadron State College men’s rodeo team is 2-0 in the spring season of the Central Rocky Mountain Region. The Eagles followed up their title from the Gillette College Rodeo by winning against this past weekend at the Eastern Wyoming College rodeo in Torrington, giving them the lead in season title chase.
The CSC men had no champions in Torrington, relying instead on depth. The top 6 finishers in each event for each round and overall earn team points and the Eagles had at least one placer in 8 of the 9 events.
Leading the way were 3 runners-up: Lane Day in steer wrestling, Wyatt Clark in bareback riding, and Chasen Cole in bull riding.
Day, of Bartlett, Neb., was 2nd in both go-rounds with times of 6.1 and 5.6 seconds to secure the runner-up honors after having won the week before.
Cole, from Hermosa, S.D., tied for 1st in the opening go-round with a 72 point ride, then was bucked off in the finals, but so were 8 of the other 9 finalists, giving him 2nd.
Clark, whose home is at Wellfleet, Neb., had scores of 81 and 69 points, and almost gave CSC a placer in every event as he was half of the team roping duo that placed 7th.
The CSC men also got a trio of 5ths from Prestyn Novak of Newell, S.D., in tie down roping, Nate McFadden of Elsmere, Neb., in bareback riding, and Jedd Rice of Boise, Idaho, in saddle bronc riding…one spot ahead of teammate Jeff Cover of Ashby.
Four CSC cowgirls placed in 5 events as CSC senior Amy Deichert of Spearfish, S.D., scored twice with a 4th in barrel racing and 6th in goat tying. Abbie Frey of Crawfordville, Ind., finished 5th in goat tying and Kaci McFadden of Elsmere was 5th in breakaway roping.
The Chadron State men scored 465 points at Torrington, edging Casper College by 30 points with the University of Wyoming 3rd with 390 and Gillette 4th with 375.
While their margin of victory wasn’t as large this time, it was enough for the Eagles to move past Gillette by 25 points for the season lead…important because the top 2 men’s and women’s teams advance to the College National Finals Rodeo in Casper this June.
CSC rodeo coach Dustin Luper modestly says “we’ve done really well at the first two rodeos this spring,” but accurately points out “the competition is so close (and) here’s still got a long ways to go.”
Luper is absolutely right as just 220 points separate the top 4 men’s teams. The Eagles have 2,715 points for the season, Gillette 2,690, Casper 2,575 and Wyoming 2,495.
Three rodeos remain on the schedule, which is taking Easter weekend off. The next rodeo in the region will be at Colorado State in Fort Collins April 10-12.