Women’s rodeo team wins by 175 points in Casper

The Chadron State cowgirls stepped up their game this weekend at the Casper College rodeo, finishing the weekend with 385 points, 175 more than runner-up Laramie County Community College, Cheyenne, Wyoming.

All-around cowgirl Shelby Winchell, graduate student of Scottsbluff, and breakaway roping champion Jessie Miller, graduate student of Woodland Park, Colorado, led the Eagles.

Winchell finished second in goat tying and third in breakaway roping to boost her to the top of the women’s competition. She won the first round of goat tying in 8 seconds and tied for second and third in the second go with a time of 8.1. She finished in a four-way tie in the first round of breakaway roping in 3.2 and finished second in the finals in 3.6, placing her third overall.

With only one rodeo remaining in the circuit, Winchell has a 550-point lead in the goat tying standings.

Miller was fifth in the first go-round of breakaway roping in 2.9 and she won the final go in 3.2, putting her first in the average. Miller had not placed at any of the first seven rodeos of the season until she was runner-up last week at Colorado State University. That placing and her victory this weekend have put her third in the regional standings, and just 13 points away from second place.

Brandi Cwach, sophomore of Geddes, South Dakota, was fourth in the goat tying with runs of 8.1 and 8.4; and Elsie Fortune, junior of Interior, South Dakota, was second in the long go of breakaway roping in 2.6, but missed her calf in the short go.

The CSC cowboys also competed well in Casper, placing at least one in every event except for tie down roping.

Cordale Martin, junior of Panhandle, Texas, won the bull riding, and Grady Egly, freshman of Oelrichs, South Dakota, was a member of the second place team roping entry.

Martin had the high score in the first round of the bull riding with 76 points. Every contestant in the final round was bucked off, leaving Martin as the victor.

Egly transferred to Chadron State at the beginning of the second semester and was not eligible to compete until the Casper rodeo. He roped with Coralee Spratt, of Gillette, Wyoming, in the team roping. The pair was 10th in the first go-round with a time of 9.5 and second in the short go in 7.6. They finished second in the average.

“A lot of rodeo is a mental game so I have been trying to maintain a positive attitude whether I am having a great practice or just an alright one,” Egly said. “I’m really focusing on calf roping and steer wrestling this week since I didn’t make it back to the short round in those.”

Also for CSC, Nate McFadden, graduate student of Elsmere, placed second in the bareback riding averages with a 67-point ride in the long go and an 82-point ride in the short go. McFadden has earned points at each of the nine rodeos in the region this season, and is in second place in the Central Rocky Mountain Regional Standings going into the last rodeo of the season.

Brothers Colin and Devin Dibbern, freshmen of Riverdale, were third in the team roping with times of 6.9 and 12.6. Colin was also third in the saddle bronc riding averages after putting a 67- and a 59-point ride on the board. He also finished third in the all-around cowboy standings.

Colby Anders, junior of Bayard, placed sixth in the steer wrestling with two 6.5 runs; Dakota Rice, freshman of Kellogg, Idaho, was fifth in the bull riding; and Lathan Lauing, freshman of Hot Springs, South Dakota, along with partner Lane Day, senior of Bartlett, made the team roping finals with an 8-second run, but failed to catch in the short go.

Martin and Egly were not among the cowboys on CSC’s official team at Casper, so the CSC cowboys finished with 183 points, their lowest of the year. The last rodeo in the circuit is April 29-May 1 at the University of Wyoming, Laramie. The Chadron State men have a lead of more than 1,000 points heading into Laramie.

The top three men’s and women’s teams and individuals in each event at the end of the season will qualify for the National College Finals Rodeo, Casper, Wyoming, in June.