Season ends for CSC rodeo team

LARAMIE, Wyo. -- Several Chadron State College contestants placed at the University of Wyoming rodeo in Laramie last weekend, led senior Tanner Whetham of Morrill, who joined with UW's Cam Jensen to win the team roping.
             
With Jensen the header and Whetham the heeler, they won the first go-round in 5.0 second and were third in the finals on Sunday in 6.2 seconds to take the top honors overall.  Each of them won $392. There were 140 team ropers at the rodeo.
             
Another senior from Sioux County, Jack Skavdahl of Harrison, closed out his college career by placing third in saddle bronc riding.  Apparently the brocns bucked harder or the cowboys rode better in the long go-round.

The judges awarded Skavdahl 73 points in that go-round, but it left him in seventh place. In the finals he earned 72 points and placed second, pulling him up to third in the averages.

CSC bareback rider Cinch Kiger of Overton, Neb., scored 71 points in the long go-round, but didn't receive a score on his second ride. Maybe he was bucked off.

For one of the few times this season, a Chadron State cowgirl placed in goat tying.  Mekenna Fisher of Sutherland finished her first run in 7.3 seconds, but needed 9.5 seconds in the finals and was sixth over.

Two more CSC cowgirls, Shailey McAbee of Hyannis and Hanna Huffman of Burwell, had identical times of 2.4 seconds in the opening go-round of breakaway roping to share fourth and fifth places.  Like all but three of the 10 finalists, they failed to catch their second calves and finished fifth and sixth in the final standings.

The UW rodeo wrapped up the season in the Central Rocky Mountain Region.  The CSC cowboys finished the season tied for fifth and sixth in the team standings with 2,085 points and the women ended the season fifth with 805 points.  There are a dozen teams in the region.

No one from CSC qualified for the College Finals Rodeo at Casper in June.