Ropin’ Ridin’ and Rasslin’
The Eagles kicked up some dust on their home turf over the weekend, with a first-place performance in steer wrestling from Parker Johnston, sophomore of Maywood.
Johnston tilted and jumped from his horse onto the steer, dug his boots into the dirt and wrestled the steer to the ground. He won Sunday’s short go-round with 4.9 seconds. Sitting fourth place at 5.4 seconds following the long go-round, he took first for the average with a time of 10.3 seconds.
“First off, my only goals for the weekend were to make a good run to get into the short round and afterwards do the best I could with what I had, and it ended up working out to where I won the short round and the average,” Johnston said.
He said that he really likes Chadron’s arena and because it’s the closest rodeo to his grandparents, he was excited that both his mom’s parents and his dad’s parents were able to come and watch the CSC Rodeo.
Another strong home performance came from Nate Bausch, senior of Allen, who kept his freehand in the air and rode out the bucks from his bull for eight seconds. He scored 76 points in the bull riding Saturday.
Bausch turned out for the short round Sunday to compete at the Mid-States Rodeo Association finals in Broken Bow. He rode two of three bulls, placing third in Broken Bow and earned the Mid-States Rodeo Association Reserve Champion Bull Rider.
“I knew that I wasn’t going to ride in the short go round on Sunday, so I knew I had to show up Saturday and put together a good ride and I was fortunate enough to draw a great bull to do that,” Bausch said. “Last year I got bucked off at our rodeo, so as a senior, it was great to be able to convert this year and jump off my bull and hear the crowd and my buddies cheering on the back of the chutes.”
Tanner Whetham, sophomore of Morrill, made it to the short go-round in the team roping with his partner Cameron Jensen from University of Wyoming. The two tied for fourth and fifth with Casper College’s Hayse Wetzel and Braden Brost, both teams tied at 7.4 seconds on one run.
For the women’s team, Tayle Brink, senior of Reva, South Dakota, made it to short round in goat tying with a long round of 7.7 seconds. She was timed at 8.2 in the short, averaging 15.9 seconds and placing her seventh.
By the end of the rodeo, the Eagles men’s rodeo team finished the weekend fifth of 10 teams with 230 points. While the women’s team earned 30 points, finished seventh of eight teams. University of Wyoming took first in both men’s and women’s with 965 points and 460 points respectively.
“My game plan doesn’t ever really change from weekend to weekend,” Johnston said. “The first step is to draw a good steer and the second one is to go make a good run and do the best with what you have. I plan on continuing to practice hard and if I draw well, the rest should fall into place.”
