BRULE, Neb. – Chadron State women's golf hit back-to-back identical team rounds of 337 to finish sixth out of eight competing teams at the Battle at Bayside tournament, hosted by the University of Nebraska Kearney.

Monday and Tuesday's 36-hole tournament marked a new era for CSC golf – not only was it the first tournament of the 2024-25 season for Chadron State, but four of the six Eagle golfers who competed were freshmen making their collegiate competitive debuts.

Payton Wise, a junior and one of just two non-freshmen on the Chadron State roster, highlighted the individual performances with a two-round score of 163, 21-over-par, to finish in a three-way tie for 11^th individually in a 49-golfer field. Wise shot a 10-over-par 81 in round one on Monday and followed it up with an 11-over-par 82 on Tuesday.

Freshman Klara Kleinig, a native of Germany who attended high school in Kansas, cracked the top 20 in her first college tournament by shooting back-to-back rounds of 12-over-par 83, finishing tied for 18^th at 24-over-par 166.

Hosts Nebraska Kearney won the tournament with a 36-hole team score of 624, topping second-place Northwest Missouri State's mark of 640 by 18 strokes. Southwest Minnesota State, Wayne State, and a "B" team from UNK rounded out the top five.

Chadron State finished sixth with a two-round score of 674, two strokes ahead of seventh-place Fort Hays State and comfortably ahead of eighth-place Concordia (Neb.).

The team scores are determined by adding together the lowest four single-round scores among each school's competing golfers. The process is repeated for each successive round of the tournament, with "scoring golfers" not required to be the same from round to round.

Chadron also sat sixth at the end of the first round of play Monday evening, with Wise (+10), Kleinig (+12), freshman Brooklyn Tychsen (+14) and junior Aubree Heinsma (+17) combining to set CSC's first round of 53-over-par 337.

On Tuesday, Wise and Kleinig led the way once again, followed by an 85 (+14) from Heinsma and an 87 (+16) from freshman Maggie Teague, a 12-stroke improvement from Teague's first round on Monday.

Over two rounds, Heinsma finished 31^st at 31-over, Tychsen finished 36^th at 38-over, and Teague finished 39^th at 44-over. The final CSC golfer to compete, freshman Allison Sanger, finished 41^st at 47-over, shooting 28-over-par 99 in the first round but improving to a 19-over-par 90 in the second round.

The golf team will be back in action next Monday and Tuesday at the Hardrocker Invite hosted by South Dakota Mines.

CSC Rodeo 1-2 In Tie Down Roping

CHADRON, Neb. – Chadron State cowboys Sid Miller and Jake Chasek captured the top two places in tie down roping at the CSC rodeo last weekend to help their team get the season off to a promising start. 

Miller, a sophomore from Merna, claimed the top honor with times of 12.9 and 11.7 seconds for a 24.6 total. Chasek, a senior from Mitchell, roped and tied his calves in 11.5 and 13.5 seconds to finish just behind Miller with a 25.0 overall.  

Held over Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Dawes County Fairgrounds in Chadron, the rodeo was a popular event. At least 450 contestants participated and many of their friends and relatives came to watch, with the grandstand nearly full for the Friday night performance.

Chadron State also had two placewinners in bareback riding. Freshman Tanner Olson of Gordon was the runner-up while scoring 75 and 72 points on some rowdy Muddy Creek Rodeo Co. broncs, and Cinch Kiger, a junior from Overton, was sixth while earning 67 and 69 points. Colton Farrow of the University of Wyoming was the bareback winner with 149 points, two more than Olson's total.

Another top six placewinner for Coach Lane Day's Chadron State team was newcomer Mejrusa Rustemovic of Kiowa, Colorado. She was fourth among the rodeo's 90 barrel racers.  

Rustemovic's story is unique. She began taking online courses at CSC this summer, learned that the college had a rodeo team and contacted Coach Lane Day to see if she could join, even though she plans to continue living with her parents in Kiowa, which is located between and a bit east of Denver and Colorado Springs. Rustemovic and her gray gelding, named Player, are not barrel racing novices, placing third in a go-round at the National Western Stock Show in Denver in January. 

Several other CSC contestants finished among the top 10 in the long go-round on Friday and Saturday, allowing them to qualify for the finals on Sunday. The cowboys included another tie down roper, Layne Palmer of Kadoka, South Dakota, steer wrestler Rex Day of Bartlett, Nebraska, and team ropers Pepper Rhyne of Craig, Colorado, and Marcus Mader of Broadus, Montana.

Two CSC cowgirls, freshman Josie Anthony of Crofton, Nebraska, and senior Elle Ravenscroft of Cody, Nebraska, were barrel racing finalists along with Rustemovic. Two breakaway ropers, Brooke McCully of Mullen and Makayla Wray of Ord, had the rodeo's fastest times of 2.4 seconds during Friday and Saturday's competition. However, both left the box too early, breaking the barrier and adding 10 seconds to their marks to knock them out of the finals.

McCully was the breakaway runner-up at last year's CSC rodeo. This year's winner was Staheli Adams of Gillette College with runs of 2.8 and 2.4 seconds. Teammate Bailey Grubb was second in breakaway and also placed third in goat tying to become the all-around cowgirl. Adams was the runner-up in the all-around. Gillette easily won the women's team top honor.

While the University of Wyoming won the men's team title, the all-around cowboy title went to Caden Stoddard of Casper College. He placed third behind Miller and Chasek in tie down roping and also was a member of the second-place team roping entry. Chadron State was fourth in the men's team standings. 
 
Other individual event winners in women's events were Loralee Ward of Colorado State at Fort Collins in barrel racing and Josie Mousel of Wyoming in goat tying. Ward is the great niece of Linda Rischling of Chadron. Men earning top honors besides CSC's Miller in tie down roping and UW's Farrow in bareback riding were two more Wyoming cowboys - Jacob Wang in steer wrestling and Emmitt Ross in bull riding. Casper's James Perrin was the saddle bronc winner and the Eastern Wyoming duo of Jace Hurlburt and Eli Leppell won the team roping.

The next rodeo in the Central Rocky Mountain Region will be Sept. 19-21 at Central Wyoming College in Riverton.


The top six placewinners in each event follow:

Key: CSC—Chadron State College; CC—Casper College; CWC-Central Wyoming College; CSU—Colorado State University; EWC—Eastern Wyoming College; GC—Gillette College; NJC—Northeastern Junior College; SC—Sheridan College; UW—University of Wyoming. 

              Bareback riding—1, Colton Farrow, UW, 75-74, 149 points; 2, Tanner Olson, CSC, 75-72, 147; 3, Reese Reder, CC, 70-74, 144; 4, Monte Downare, CC, 73-67, 140; 5, Eian Smith, CWC, 63.5-73, 137.5; 6, Cinch Kiger, CSC, 67-69, 136.
              Saddle bronc riding—1, James Perrin, CC, 81-76, 157 points; 2, Dixon Tattrie, UW, 75-80, 155; 3, Devon Hay, CC, 76-79, 155; 4, Easton West, CC, 76-77, 153; 5, Jake Schlattmann, SC, 75-76, 151; 6, Brlan Pengelly, CC, 73-74, 147.
              Steer wrestling—1, Jacob Wang, UW, 4.0-7.8, 11.8 seconds; 2, David Gallagher, UW, 5.1-7.3, 12.4; 3, Jaxon Mirabal, UW, 8-4-5.1, 13.5; 4, Wyatt Hajny, EWC, 6.5-7.8, 14.3; 5, Jace Mayfield, CWC, 10.3-4.3, 14.6; 6, Gage Davis LCCC, 9.5-8.0, 17.5.
              Tie down roping—1, Sid Miller, CSC, 12.9-11.7, 24.6 seconds; 2, Jake Chasek, CSC, 11.5-13.5, 25.0; 3, Caden Stoddard, CC, 12.4-14.4, 26.8; 4, Dalton Porch, GC, 11.3-20.9, 32,2; 5, Cam Johnson, GC, 11.6-22.0, 33.6; 6, Jace Mayfield, CWC, 12.7-24.0, 36.7
              Team roping—1, Jace Hurlburt & Eli Leppell, EWC, 11.2-8.4, 19.6 seconds; 2, Caden Stoddard & Jace Cozier, CC, 13.7-7.5, 21.2; 3, Trevor Sorge & Tracer Olson, GC, 7.7-0, 7.7 on one; 4, Harley Ann Baas & Aidan Scollard, NJC, 8.2-0, 8.2; 5, Haiden Thompson, GC, & Troupe Coors, UW, 8.8-0, 8.8; 6, Jacob Wang & Jaxon Maribal, UW, 9.4-0, 9.4.
              Bull riding—1, Emmit Ross, UW, 80-78, 158 points; 2, Stefan Tonita, UW, 71-72, 142. Only qualified rides.
              Goat tying—1, Josie Mousel, UW, 7.0-6.6, 13.6 seconds; 2, Layni Stevens, UW, 7.0-6.8, 13.8; 3, Brylee Grubb, GC, 7.5-7.1, 14.6; 4, Tricia Lammers, CWC, 7.6-7.2, 14.8; 5, Raylee Caldwell, UW, 7.4-7.6, 15.0; 6, Molly Rotenberger, UW, 7.0-8.1, 15.1,
              Barrel racing—1, Loralee Ward, CSU, 17.21-17.26, 34.37 seconds; 2, Rayne Grant, UW, 17.31-17.17, 34.48; 3, Ashlyn Govern, GC, 17.54-17.22, 34.76; 4, Mejrusa Rustemovic, CSC, 17.68-17.76, 35.14; 5, Hanna Mendenhall, LCCC, 18.01-17.52, 35.53; 6, McKinlee May, CSU, 17.98-17.58, 35.56.
              Breakaway roping—1, Staheli Adams, GC, 2.8-2.4, 5.2 seconds; 2, Brylee Grubb, GC, 2.9-4.2, 7.1; 3, Jaden Mathis, CC, 3.9-3.4, 7.3; 4, Olivia Cullen, NJC, 4.2-3.1, 7.3; 5 Hailey Hardeman, UW, 2.8-0, 2.8 on one; 6 Hanna Mendenhall, LCCC, 3.7-0, 3.7.