Two CSC cowgirls riding high at finals rodeo

With just one session of the third and final go-round remaining tonight, senior Shelby Winchell of Scottsbluff is in second place in the goat tying standings, just a tenth of a second out of first place. Also, junior Amy Deichert of Spearfish is third in the barrel racing standings, 35 hundredths of a second from the top spot.

There will be nine goat tiers and 13 barrel racers in tonight’s performance. The top 12 in the averages of all nine events after tonight’s rodeo will advance to the championship go-round Saturday night in the Casper Events Center.

In goat tying, even though Arianna Assini of Cochise County College in Arizona completed her run in 6.4 seconds, the fastest time so far in the third go-round, Thursday night, it did not change things at the top of the leader board. Hayden Segelke, a native of Sterling, Colo., who attends Eastern New Mexico University, remains at the top in 19.3 seconds on three runs and Winchell is right behind at 19.4.

Assini also had a time of 6.6 in the second go-round, but took a no score in the first go-round on Monday and will not make the finals.

CSC’s remaining two goat tiers at the national rodeo, Amy Tierney of Oral, S.D., and Shaylee Hance of Circle, Mont., fell out of contention for a spot in the finals as several contestants moved ahead of them Thursday night, crowding them out of the top 12.

Deichert slipped from second to third in the overall barrel racing standings as Taylor Engesser of Gillette College had a time of 14.03 seconds Thursday night to take over first place in 42.20 seconds. Calli Crossley of Blue Mountain Community College in Oregon is second in 42.21 seconds and Deichert is third in 42.55 seconds.

After mediocre runs in the first two go-rounds, another CSC barrel racer, Katie Loughran of Broken Bow and her spotted gelding, Blow the Smoke, ran the cloverleaf pattern in 14.01 seconds Thursday night. That’s the fourth fastest time of the go-round so far. Loughran’s total time is 43.31 seconds, putting her in 15^th place entering tonight’s last performance prior to the championship session Saturday night.