CHADRON, NE – The Laramie County Community College rodeo team got off to a hot start in the opening rodeo of the season hosted by Chadron State College with both the men and the women well represented in the short go on Sunday.
"I thought they really did good," Interim Head Coach Dean Finnerty said. "Everybody made some really nice runs overall and everybody had a dang good shot at winning a pretty good check and they did a good job."
The women's team was the highlight, finishing second to Gillette with 220 team points. They were paced by sophomore Rayne Grant's two fourth place finishes in barrels and breakaway where she picked up 190 points on her own for the team score.
Grant was nothing but consistent in barrels, placing fourth in the slack run before putting up the third fastest time in the short go. Breakaway was the same, with a 2.4 on her first calf getting her fourth place and a 3.4 in the short go helping her to an average of 5.8 for the rodeo and a fourth-place finish.
"My roping has been really good lately," Grant said. "My horse has been working phenomenal and I knew the calves and what I needed to see on my start and it just all came together well."
She also was able to pick up points with a eight second run in the long go for goat tying and was just outside of the top six in both the average and the short go to take seventh for the weekend.
"It's a great confidence boost to go into the season and go into the rest of the weekends this fall with confidence in my horses and in myself," Grant said.
The weekend puts Grant in the All-Around conversation early, placing third for the weekend.
"I think (the momentum) feeds really well forward. Getting points right away and showing that you are competitive with everybody else kinda gets them on the ropes and you can just run with it and keep it rolling," Finnerty added.
The women's team also picked up points from Jentry Jenkins who finished fifth in the long go of breakaway with a time of 2.7 seconds and just missed on the top six for the average when she missed her calf in the short go.
Kassidy Dunagan was not on the points team, but she also had a strong week in barrels, making it back in the short go to take fifth in both the round and the average for 40 points in the standings.
On the men's side, Tate Miller made a statement early in bareback riding when he tied for the top score in the first go with a ride for 78 points. His 64-point ride in the short go put him in a tie for third in the average and a strong start in the Central Rocky Mountain Region standings.
"Tate spurred the hair off of that son of a gun, it was pretty cool," Finnerty said of his first ride. "His second horse wasn't that good but the first one he used as far as he could, and it was neat to watch. I've got high expectations for this whole team, but it was fun to see Tate have that kind of success at his first rodeo."
Another strong performance for the Golden Eagles was in steer wrestling where five LCCC bulldoggers made it back to the short go and Gage Davis led the way with a 3.6 to pick up 60 points from the slack round.
"It was pretty sweet. I had run (that steer) a couple of times this summer so I kind of knew what was up with him and I was just hoping not to mess him up myself and go make a good run on him."
Chase Olson (3rd, 4.0) and Bohdi Coombs (5th, 4.5) also were in the top six of the long go, but only Coombs was able to pick up points in the short go, placing fourth with a 5.1 which put him third in the average. Davis finished sixth with his time on one head.
Also making it back to the short go were Dane Pokorny and Grey Gilbert to give LCCC half of the ten brought back for the short go.
"To have that many guys in the short round is awesome. It's pretty much a really high stakes practice almost," Davis added about the short go. "It's really fun."
"I thought that was awesome," Finnerty said. "We had half the field back in the short round and that says a lot about these people. They are doing some good things, making some good progress. You still have to pay attention and get them caught and pull them down, but they did a really good job overall. I was please that they all rode well, scored well, and made some good progress."
In team roping, Reece Wadhams and his partner Rio Nutter from the University of Wyoming had an 8.5 in the long go to tie for fourth in the round and pick up 25 points. They had a 16.8 in the short go, but that put them just outside of the top six in the average by 1.1 seconds.
Tucker Ravenscroft also made it back, but he and his partner failed to catch their short go steer and missed out on points.
The final Golden Eagle to make it back was Dixon Tattrie in saddle bronc. The sophomore had a ride of 64 points on his first go but couldn't put a score down in the short go and missed out on the top six.
The Golden Eagles will be back in action on Friday when they travel to Riverton for the Rustler Roundup Rodeo hosted by Central Wyoming College. Information on the rodeo can be found at www.golccc.com.