Rodeo concludes fall season against Lamar
Chadron State rodeo saw Quincy Segelke place fourth in goat tying with runs of 9.2, and nine seconds last weekend, against Lamar Community College as the Eagles’ fall season wraps up.
At the season’s end, Chadron State’s men’s rodeo team ranks fifth and the women’s team ranks third in the Central Rocky Mountain Region standings, according to the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association. The top two teams get selected to compete in the national meet in June.
“For the women’s team, we are in striking distance, for the men’s team, we have to work on some stuff,” Head Rodeo Coach Dustin Luper said. “It’s like we never wiped any of the rust off from the summer. Chadron’s rodeo was probably the best rodeo we had, and that was the first one. Then things just kind of fell apart for us about every rodeo after. But we get six more in the spring and we’re excited about that, we’re only 30 percent done and hopefully we’ll keep practicing through the fall and start back up in February.”
Segelke, senior of Douglas, Wyoming, ranks third in the regional standings for the fall season.
Against Lamar, senior Tate Petrak, of Martin, South Dakota, placed sixth in steer wrestling with runs of 5.2, and 11.2 seconds. Petrak ranks sixth in the regional standings and did so while working with a young horse.
“I was satisfied with my performance at Lamar,” Petrak said about last weekend’s meet. “There is no doubt looking back that there are things that I could have done differently to be a little bit faster on my runs. To me it’s more of being consistent than it is being fast, and I have worked hard on that throughout the last couple years and I am starting to feel the difference. I have a young tie-down horse, and these were his first rodeos ever going to this fall and he has done good so far. There is still some perfecting to do until the spring rodeos start up again.”
Along with Petrak, Tanner McInerny, junior of Alzada, Montana placed fifth in steer wrestling with times of 6.3 and 8.7 seconds while Tiegan Marchant, junior of Newcastle, Wyoming, placed fourth after a 4.2-second run in the go-round, but failed to make time in the finals.
The Eagles struggled to connect in their second rounds last weekend. During the team roping competition, McInerny and his partner Caden Camp, of Bozeman, Montana, placed third in their opening-round with a 7.3-second time, but failed to make time on their second run. Colten Storer, sophomore of Arthur, and Tanner Whetham, freshman of Henry, clinched a finals berth in team roping after an 8.4 second run by the duo, but were unable to connect in the finals.
Brianna Williams, senior of Buffalo, South Dakota, also started strong by roping her first calf in 3.5 seconds but missed on her second run.
“They performed very well in the long-round and then I think the pressure just got to them,” Luper said. “They were in the middle of the pack, so they had to make up a little bit of time. The heeler, Tanner Whetham kind of missed. If they did what they did in the long-round and not got pressured up, they would’ve done fine. Lots of times when you’re coming from the bottom up, you put that little-bit of extra pressure on yourself thinking ‘Boy I got to get something done so I can squeeze into that top four,’ a lot of times it’s just doing the same thing.”
Chadron State rodeo members are using the fall season as a learning experience to improve for the spring season.
“What has impressed me most about the team this fall is their willingness to come back after a failure and make a short round,” Petrak said. “Many of them got knocked down, but the next rodeo, they were back and ready to give it their all. That’s important because if you get knocked down and are having a rough time trying to put together a good run or a good ride and never pick yourself back up and remind yourself that you can do it and you are capable of doing the best, then you will continue your bad luck to the next rodeo. I was happy with our team’s performance and of course there’s always room to improve, so I’m hoping we fix our flaws and come back tougher in the spring.”
The NIRA voted in the summer to give all student-athletes eligibility back. According to Luper, seniors Petrak, Rieley Maier, of Bowdle, South Dakota, and Merisa Cominiello, of Burlington, Colorado, are exercising their added year of eligibility.