CSC rodeo team opens season this weekend

CSC coach Dustin Luper said this year’s team is the largest and potentially one of the best that he has had since taking over the program eight years ago. He said 43 CSC cowboys and cowgirls have entered the opening rodeo.

The roster includes 14 freshmen and eight transfers.

“If everything goes well, this could be our best men’s team,” Luper said. “It’s certain that we’ll have lots of depth.”

Three returning CSC cowboys finished among the top 10 in the region in their events last season. Prestyn Novak of Kadoka, S.D., was fifth in tie down roping and 10^th in steer wrestling, Nate McFadden of Elsmere, Neb., was fifth in bareback riding and Cole Chasen of Hermosa, S.D., was `ninth in bull riding.

Lane Day of Bartlett is another CSC cowboy who is capable of placing in any of the timed events.

A couple of graduate students also are expected to be among the CSC headliners.

One of them is Shelby Winchell of Scottsbluff, who is a three-time College National Finals Rodeo qualifier. She finished third in the nation in goat tying in 2012, when she was a sophomore at Eastern Wyoming College in Torrington, and was the runner-up in the event in 2014, when she was a senior at CSC and led Chadron State to second place in the team standings.

Winchell also was the runner-up all-around cowgirl in the region her senior year.

Also competing for CSC is Clayton Van Aken, who, as a senior of the University of Wyoming in 2013-14, qualified for the CNFR by placing second in team roping and third in tie down roping in the region.   He was third in the region’s all-around cowboy standings that year.

Also joining the Chadron State team this year are Kelsey Knust of Verdigre, Neb., and Wyatt Mann of Box Elder, S.D. They finished seventh and 10^th in the CRM Region, respectively, last year as team roping headers. Another transfer, Justin Kissack of Gillette, Wyo., was eighth in the final bareback standings last year.  

All three came to CSC from Wyoming community colleges.

 

—Con Marshall