Chadron State cowgirls win team title at Casper rodeo

Led by all-around cowgirl Amy Tierney, barrel racing winner Katie Loughran and goat tying champion Shelby Winchell, the Chadron State women won most of the top honors and drew closer to lead in the Central Rocky Mountain Region’s team standings. 

Chadron State won the women’s team title with 318.3 points, 88 more than runner-up Gillette College. With just one rodeo remaining in the region, Gillette leads the women’s team standings with 2,815 points, but Chadron State is only 42 points behind with 2,773.

The top two teams in the region at the end of the season will advance to the College National Finals Rodeo, also in Casper, June 15-21.

Tierney, a senior from Oral, S.D., won the all-around title during the weekend by placing second in the barrel race and sharing second place with Winchell in the first go-round of the goat tying.

Tierney’s times in the barrels were 15.75 seconds, good for third place in the opening go-round, and 15.52 seconds in the finals. She wrapped up her goat in 7.7 seconds during her first run, but the second goat came untied. 

The loose-legged goat dropped Tierney out of the averages in the event, but quick time during the first run earned points in the all-around competition.

Winchell, a senior from Scottsbluff, wrapped up the goat tying championship at Casper by tying her second goat in 7.1 seconds, the fastest of the rodeo.

Shaylee Hance of Circle, Mont., Chadron State’s third exceptional goat tier, was third in the averages for the event. She completed her first run 8.1 seconds to share 7^th place in the go-round, then was second behind Winchell in the championship go-round in 7.5 seconds.

Loughran, who hails from Broken Bow, and her spotted mount, Blow the Smoke, sped to victory in the barrel race. They placed second in the first go-round in 15.69 seconds and posted the fastest time of the rodeo, 15.45 seconds, in the finals on Sunday. 

Chadron State cowgirls also did some good things in breakaway roping, Amy Deichert of Spearfish, S.D., finished fourth in the averages after catching her calves in 3.3 and 3.5 seconds.

In addition, both Danni Jo Hinman of Hay Springs and Vanzi Knippling of Sturgis, S.D., roped their first claves in 2.7 seconds to share second place in the go-round, but neither caught their second calves.

Knippling is a freshman who joined the CSC team in January.

Two Chadron State cowboys also advanced to the finals. Russell Hipke of Stuart finished fifth in steer wrestling averages in 6.4 and 5.8 seconds. Derek Powers of Arthur was among the tie down roping finalists after completing his first run in 10.9 seconds. He also caught his second calf, but had trouble tying it, taking a time of 17.5 seconds.

The final rodeo in the region will be this weekend at the University of Wyoming.