By Con Marshall
Led by senior Brooke McCully’s third consecutive outstanding performance in breakaway roping, the Chadron State College rodeo team had a strong showing at the Laramie County Community College rodeo this past weekend in Cheyenne
McCully won the breakaway championship by catching her calves in 2.3 and 2.4 seconds. She shared second through fourth place in the opening go-round and was first in the finals on Sunday. There were 99 breakaway ropers at the rodeo.
A senior from Mullen, McCully placed second in breakaway roping at the Central Wyoming Rodeo in Riverton on Sept. 20-22 and won the event at the Sheridan College rodeo the next weekend. Following those three rodeos, she has accumulated 450 points in the event. That gives her a 235-point lead in the Central Rocky Mountain Region standings through four rodeos this fall.
The only rodeo where McCully didn’t place high was the Chadron State rodeo that opened the season in early September. She caught her first and only calf at the CSC rodeo in 2.4 seconds, matching the fastest time, but broke the barrier, eliminating her from the finals.
Since then, she’s had quick times that counted and has been hard to beat. Her average time is 2.87 seconds on six runs at the last three rodeos.
The breakaway competition was tight at the LCCC rodeo. While McCully’s total time was 4.7 seconds, two Casper College cowgirls, Jaden Mathis and Kenna Stratton, placed second and third at 4.8 and 5.0 seconds, respectively.
Two Chadron State cowboys finished third in their events at Cheyenne. Freshman Wyatt Reichenberg of Harrisburg earned that place in steer wrestling with times of 5.2 and 5.0 seconds and Cinch Kiger of Overton was third in bareback riding by scoring 77 and 73 points.
It was the first time Reichenberg has placed at a college rodeo after he was the Nebraska State High School steer wrestling champion each of the last two years.
The steer wrestling was won by Gage Davis of LCCC with runs of 5.0 and 4.3 seconds. The bareback winner was Colton Farrow of the University of Wyoming with 76 and 81 points. Kiger tied for first and second with his 77-point ride in the first go-round.
Several other CSC cowboys were among the 12 finalists in their events at Cheyenne. They included tie down ropers Jake Chasek of Mitchell and Layne Palmer of Kadoka, S.D., both of whom caught and tied their first calves in 10.4 seconds. In addition, Tanner Olson of Gordon made the finals of bareback riding with a 60-point score, and Pepper Rhyne of Craig, Colo., and Marcus Mader of Broadus, Mont., were finalists in team roping after finishing their first run in 9.0 seconds. However, none of them received a score in the finals.
The all-around cowboy at the LCCC rodeo was Carter Anderson, a former Gordon-Rushville High School standout in both football and basketball and now a sophomore at Eastern Wyoming College in Torrington. He won the tie down roping this past weekend with times of 9.1 and 9.6 seconds and was a member of the fourth place team roping entry.
Another event winner at Cheyenne was Haiden Thompson of Gillette College, who won the goat tying in 7.2 and 6.8 seconds. Her family lived at Whitney when she was a child prior to moving to near Yoder, Wyo. Her grandparents are Tom and Dixie Thompson of Whitney and Mike and Tammy Hollibaugh of Chadron. Her great-grandfather, Dr. Vern Holmes of Chadron, recently celebrated his 102nd birthday.
The final rodeo in the region this fall will be this coming weekend at Lamar College in southern Colorado.