Winchell shares CNFR goat tying lead

A graduate student from Scottsbluff, Nebraska, Winchell shared fourth and fifth place in the first go-round on Monday with her first 6.3 second clocking, then had the same time Tuesday while tying for second through fifth place. Her total time of 12.6 seconds puts her at the top of the leader board with Jacoby Hotsenpiller of Southwest Oklahoma State. 

Two more goat tiers, Shayna Miller of Northwest Oklahoma State and K.L. Spratt of Sam Houston State in Texas, have combined times of 12.7 seconds. All the other 56 entries have taken at least 13 seconds to catch and tie their goats.

Winchell will make her third go-round run during the rodeo’s first official performance Wednesday night, then wait to see if she’s one of the 12 finalists on Saturday night.

Winchell finished third in the final national standings in 2012 when she was a sophomore at Eastern Wyoming College, was among the dozen finalists in 2013 after she transferred to Chadron State and tied for the reserve championship honors in 2014, her second year at CSC.

She did not compete last year, but returned this season and has been working on her master’s degree at Chadron State.

It was a mixed bag for another Chadron State veteran on Tuesday.

Clayton Van Aken of Descanso, California, saw his calf run through the loop in tie down roping, but he and his team roping mate, Trey Yates of Laramie County Community College in Cheyenne, completed their run in 6.7 seconds and are fifth in the standings after two go-rounds are in the books.  

Chadron State rodeo coach Dustin Luper said Van Aken appeared to be on his way to having a great time in the tie down roping, but he didn’t get the slack taken up soon enough and the calf kept on running.  Van Aken caught and tied his first calf on Monday in 9.0 seconds, good for a share of second place.

In team roping, Van Aken and Yates finished their first run on Monday in 7.4 seconds, good for 13^th place. Their 6.7 clocking Tuesday was the ninth fastest and their total time of 14.1 seconds is fifth among the 50 teams. Their third go-round appearance will be Thursday night.

Senior bareback rider Nate McFadden of Elsmere, Nebraska, located in Cherry County, is 10^th in the bareback standings with 139.5 points through two go-rounds. He’ll be riding again Thursday night.

Chadron State’s Colby Anders of Bayard, Nebraska, hasn’t done badly in steer wrestling with times of 10.1 and 7.8 seconds, but he’s 17^th among the 46 contestants after two go-rounds. He’ll probably need to pick up the pace a bit during this third go-round performance Thursday night in order to be among the 12 finalists Saturday night.