Women’s rodeo team ride away with a win at CSU

This past week the Chadron State rodeo team traveled to Fort Collins, Colo., to compete in the Colorado State University Rodeo. The women’s team continued their outstanding performances and placed first as a team with 350 points, 80 points above Gillette College.

The Chadron State women’s team is placed second in the region. Trailing by only 130 points to Gillette College. The CSC cowgirls have placed in the top three teams at all eight rodeos thus far this year in the Central Rocky Mountain Region.

There were two CSC Cowgirls who placed this weekend. They were Shaylee Hance, junior of Circle, Mont., and Katie Loughran, junior of Broken Bow. The cowgirls finished second in goat tying and barrel racing respectively.

Hance ran a time of 6.8 in the long go-round of goat typing and 7.2 in the short-go to tie her for fourth place, but her consistency came through to earn her runner-up in the averages.

Loughran was eighth in the long go-round with a barrel time of 15.61 seconds. However, she really shone in the championship go-round with a time of 15.02 seconds, the fastest time of the rodeo. This pulled her to second in the averages.

Both Hance and Loughran have very positive things to say about the women’s team and the way that they mesh and compete together.

“We have some very competitive girls, and it really helps our practices,” Hance said. “We have girls who have all done well at the college finals, and I know that practicing with them pushes me. We all get along really well and are always pushing each other at the rodeos. It’s kind of like having another family.”

Loughran shares Hance’s views.

“Our women’s team is something special! We all work very hard each and every day trying to perfect the event…and it takes a lot of time and patience, but we have seemed to start showing it more and more as the rodeos progress in the spring season,” Loughran said. “I feel as if the girls on our team are all very competitive, and we strive to beat our times from the last run or others around us that we know will test our abilities, even in practice. I also think that we have a very cohesive team this year, we all mesh so well together, and it’s a blast getting to do the sport you love while enjoying the people in it as well.”

Hance and Loughran were not the only two CSC cowgirls to do well. Among them were Amy Tierney, senior of Oral, S.D.; Shelby Winchell, senior of Scottsbluff; and Danni Jo Hinman, junior of Hay Springs.

Tierney tied for fourth place in the long go-round of goat tying with a time of 6.8 seconds, but she ran a 8.6 in the finals and that pushed her out of the top six in the final standings. Tierney also placed fourth in the long-go barrels with a time of 15.56 seconds, but was penalized in the final go-round for knocking over a barrel.

Winchell was third in the long-go goat tying with a run of 6.7 seconds, but was disqualified in the second because her goat came untied. Hinman and her partner, Max Zimmerman of Eastern Wyoming College, placed fourth in the team roping averages with runs of 7.5 and 8.3 seconds.

Although no Chadron State Cowboys placed in the averages this weekend, there were two that made it to the finals on Sunday after placing among the top 10 in their long go-rounds. They were Derek Powers, junior of Arthur, in tie-down roping, and Kelby Bond, junior of Avondale, Colo., in steer wrestling.

Powers roped and tied his calf in 13.0 seconds in the long go-round advancing him to the finals where he tied his calf in 10.2 seconds. However, he broke the barrier in the finals and was penalized by 10 seconds leaving him with a time of 20.2, which bucked him out of the averages.

Bond dogged his calf in 9.4 seconds in the long go-round, but he missed his steer in the short go-round and therefore took a no time in the finals.

No rodeo will take place this weekend in the region, but the Chadron State Rodeo team will return to action April 25-27 at Casper College.