CHEYENNE, WY – Monday slack was a busy day for the Laramie County Community College rodeo team with five qualifiers in action, including three getting their first goes of the rodeo in the morning slack round.
Chance Derner, Bernard Girard, and Reece Wadhams all took their first tries of the 2023 College National Finals Rodeo while Payton Feyder and Dixon Tattrie had their second goes of the rodeo.
Derner was the first up in tie down roping. The junior was able to get a good catch on his calf and outside of a small slip on the tie it was a good run of 14.8 to put him in the middle of the pack for the round.
“Seth and I talked at the beginning and said just go do what you do,” Derner said. “My horse didn’t work the best but I knew coming in I needed to help him a little more. I guess I will help him a little more tomorrow morning too.”
Derner sits in 28th place after the first go for tie down out of a field of 42 and he said just getting a time was the biggest victory for him.
“It’s three and a short so you at least have to catch them all and get a time on them to at least give yourself a chance,” he added. “It was a good step.”
Feyder was just a bit to quick out of the gate in her second go for breakaway. Her run of 2.3 went to a 12.3 after she was called for a broken barrier.
“On this run my main goal was just to go for the round so I took a little more aggressive start,” Feyder said. “It didn’t work out for me today but I think I’ll take the same start on Friday and see if I can get a go around win.”
The next round of breakaway for Feyder won’t be until Friday in the final performance and she said while part of her wishes she was going in Tuesday’s performance, the break between goes will be a good thing.
“I think it will give me a couple of days to regroup and hopefully go at my calf Friday with a little better attitude and strategy.”
Steer wrestling was one of the more interesting runs of the day as Girard was nearly able to overcome a calf that ran all the way to the bucking shoots before it reversed course on him and slipped away from the off-balance Golden Eagle.
“We just could not get caught up and this arena is so short, it all came together really quick,” Girard said. “We had a little bit of fun there at the bucking shoots and got the crowd into it for a minute. I wish we would have got him down but that’s rodeo.”
Girard said now his focus goes to trying to win a round and put two good runs together on Tuesday when he as back to back goes in the morning slack and the evening performance.
“I wish it was the other way around,” he said. “I wish I was stacking three up to go to Saturday but with the way these steers are, if you have two really good runs you might squeak in there on two runs, but I’m just worried about one steer at a time and hopefully I get a good one tomorrow and I can capitalize on it.”
Tattrie drew the bull “Tighty Whitey” and after a few seconds on, he found himself off balance and was thrown in his second attempt of the rodeo.
“He went about three or four jumps out there and finally decided to go to the right,” Tattrie explained. “I was looking for him to go to the left the whole time and that didn’t work out for me because he didn’t even think about going that way.”
With his final go coming in the performances, Tattrie said he is hoping to feed off of the environment to pick up a completed ride.
“I know the music’s going to be blaring, the crowd is going to be into it, it’s going to help fire you up and do the best you can on that last go you get,” he said.
The team roping for Wadhams and Nutter was a tough one with a good initial catch but Reece was unable to pick up the heels on a tight turn and ended up with a no time.
“Reece put a good loop out for him,” Head Coach Seth Glause said afterwords. “The calf just kind of washed out on him but I know he will be back tomorrow.”
More than half of the field of team ropers ended up with a not time in the opening go and the field is still wide open going into the second go.
The Golden Eagles will have a busy day in the morning slack with Derner, Girard, Wadhams, and Griffin Koester all getting their second goes.
Three will return for the performance rounds with signal the start of the third go for everyone and Girard will represent the team in steer wrestling and both Koester and Tattrie have their final bull rides of the rodeo scheduled.