With a pair of event winners, the University of Wyoming women’s rodeo team last weekend had its best all-around performance to move into first place in the Central Rocky Mountain Region (CRMR).
The Cowgirls scored a season-high 465 points to win the Lamar (Colo.) Community College rodeo -- the club’s third team title in four fall rodeos. Gillette College placed second with 365 points.
With just this weekend’s Laramie County Community College (LCCC) rodeo remaining on the fall schedule, the Cowgirls have now racked up a regional-leading 1,425 points to claim the CRMR lead -- a position they last held on this fall’s opening weekend.
Two-week leader Northeastern Junior College (Sterling, Colo.) now trails the Cowgirls in the standings with 1,203 points. NJC placed third at LCC, 235 points behind UW.
The resurgent UW women, who have fallen on hard times the past couple of years, showed depth at Lamar when all four team members scored points. The bulk of the scoring came in breakaway roping where three individual team members combined to score 305 points.
Lydia Coe, a Salinas, Calif., senior, continued her breakaway hot streak, winning the average on the strength of a pair of solid rounds. Freshman Cassie Hamilton from Chehalis, Wash., had the short go round’s fastest time to finish just two-tenths of a second behind Coe in the average. A third team member, Kaycee Nelson, a Buffalo, S.D., senior, was fifth in the average.
The three Cowgirls are dominating the regional breakaway roping event, with Coe moving into the overall lead with a total of 450 points -- 175 ahead of Nelson, who won the regional title as a sophomore. Hamilton is in third place in the overall standings, just 55 points behind Nelson.
Chandler Markel from Scottsbluff, Neb., became the second UW Cowgirl to take over the regional lead in her specialty event, barrel racing. The freshman holds a slim 10-point lead over NJC’s Hayden Segelke in the standings.
Markel came back from the third position after the opening run at LCC with the best short go time, winning the average for the team’s final 160 points.
UW Cowgirl Cayla Allen, who was not among the four team members selected prior to last weekend’s rodeo, was fourth in goat tying. The Bellvue, Colo., senior’s best round came in the short go with the third fastest time.
As hot as the Cowgirls have been the last two weekends, the UW men have gone in the opposite direction.
The Cowboys’ downslide continued for the third consecutive rodeo, as UW placed 10th at the LCC rodeo with only 90 team points, scoring in only two of the six men’s events.
Justin Moldaschel of Stanton, Minn., was the lone member of the six-man UW team to place in the average. The junior recorded 74 points in his opening bareback ride, placing sixth overall. The only other team points came from Pueblo, Colo., senior Tyler Schnaufer, who was third in tie down roping after the opening round, but had a no-time in the short go.
Two other UW Cowboys won their respective events, but they were not selected to the six-man UW team. Junior Thomas Smith of Eden won in steer wrestling while sophomore Hunter Hoover, from Manter, Kan., took the bull riding title.
Eastern Wyoming College placed first at LCC with 490 points and the host Runnin’ Lopes were second with 365.
Overall, the UW men slipped to fifth in the regional standings with 1,135 points, trailing leader Gillette College, which has 1,835 team points.
The LCCC rodeo begins Friday with the short go Sunday afternoon. CRMR action doesn’t resume until the Gillette College rodeo in mid-March.
For a complete roundup of team and individual results from the LCC rodeo, go here, and for regional leaders, click here.
