Winchell, three CSC cowboys reach college rodeo finals

The others are cowboys Nate McFadden of Elsmere, Nebraska, in bareback riding, Prestyn Novak of Newell, South Dakota, in tie down roping and Colby Anders of Bayard, Nebraska, in steer wrestling. 

The top 12 contestants in each event after three go-rounds have been completed make the finals.

Entering the finals, Winchell has the goat tying lead with an aggregate time of 18.7 seconds. Both of her times in the first and second go-rounds were 6.3 seconds and her time of 6.1 seconds in the third go-round Wednesday night tied for the fastest of the rodeo.

McFadden goes into the finals tied for fourth place among the bareback riders. He scored 70, 69.5 and 72.5 points in the three go-rounds for 212 total points. Wyatt Denny of Feather River College, a junior college in Quincy, California, has the lead with 236 points. Denny’s teammate, Clayton Biglow, is second with 228.5.

Both Novak and Anders go into the finals in 12^th place in their events. Both got faster in each go-round.

Novak roped and tied his calves in 23.4, 12.9 and 9.9 seconds, respectively, for a total of 46.2 seconds. The tie down leader is Cooper Martin of Hill College at Hillsboro, Texas, in 26.8 seconds.

Anders dogged his steers in 10.1, 7.8 and 5.7 seconds for a total of 23.6 seconds. The steer wrestling leader is JD O. Struxness of Northwestern Oklahoma with an aggregate time of 13.9 seconds.

Winchell’s closest contender in the goat tying is someone she knows quite well. She is K.L. Spratt of Sam Houston State of Texas, whose times of 6.4, 6.3 and 6.2 seconds add up to 18.9 seconds, just two-tenths of a second slower than Winchell’s total.

Although Spratt attends Sam Houston State, her parents’ ranch is at Lysite, Wyoming. Both her mother, the former Shelley Meter, and her grandfather, Don Meter, are from Minatare and were rodeo standouts at Chadron State College.

Don Meter became CSC’s first national champion in any sport when he won the collegiate calf roping in 1955. Shelley Meter was the all-around cowgirl at the College National Finals Rodeo in 1987, when she was a senior at Chadron State.

Since K.L.’s grandparents, Don and Shirley Meter, still live in the Minatare area, she has visited them on numerous occasions and became acquainted with Shelby because of their common love for rodeo. In fact, they practiced their goat tying skills together in the Winchell family’s arena in the western portion of Scottsbluff last week before they headed to Casper for the national finals.