UW Cowgirls Open Spring Rodeo Season with Second

Cori Terry was perfect over the weekend.

Perfect in the sense that she won two rounds of goat tying and the overall average in leading the University of Wyoming women’s team to a second-place finish at the opening spring rodeo hosted by Gillette College. Not only did the McKinnon freshman post a trifecta in the competition, but she also widened her overall lead in the regional goat tying standings.

The host Pronghorn women won their home rodeo with 475 points, while the Cowgirls scored 405 points, marking the UW women’s fifth-straight strong performance dating to the fall season.

For the year, Gillette College still leads the Central Rocky Mountain Region (CRMR) standings with 2,148.7 points, while the Cowgirls are 630 points back with 1,518.7 points. Competing for the first time since the passing of longtime coach Tom Parker last week, the Casper College women were third in the Gillette College rodeo and remained the No. 3 team in the CRMR with 800 points.

Terry, who was added to the four-member Cowgirls team late in the fall season by Coach George Howard, has responded in a major way, as she firmly controls the regional goat tying competition. The Wyoming native dominates the event with 711.7 points through six rodeos, with just four remaining this spring. A distant second is Gillette’s Rickie Engesser with 495 points.

Forsythe, Mont., native Amelia Anderson, who added 100 points in goat tying during the weekend rodeo, climbed into third place in the regional standings with 353.7 points. She split third place at Gillette.

Another one of Howard’s up-and-coming Wyoming freshman stars, Casey Reimler, of Rozet, placed fourth in the breakaway roping average last weekend, while Anderson split fifth place to give her two top-six finishes in the average in a pair of events.

Reimler added the final 15 points to the team’s overall performance when she and team roping partner Trase Johnson, of Sheridan College, split fifth place in the opening round.

It was a tough weekend for the UW men, not because the Pokes finished fifth in the opening spring rodeo, but because the club lost its leading point producer, Jaden Clark, for the season.

The Wellfleet, Neb., senior broke his left femur during the Saturday afternoon performance when his horse stumbled and rolled over the top of Clark. The UW cowboy was sitting solidly in third place in the regional saddle bronc riding standings heading into the spring portion of the schedule.

The Cowboys missed the bareback rider’s production in Gillette over the weekend. The senior has been steady, producing points in each rodeo this season.

UW placed fifth in Gillette with 360 points, while region-leading Sheridan College produced 585. Central Wyoming College (CWC) and Chadron State College (CSC) both scored 385 points, and fourth went to the host Pronghorns with 365.

The Pokes were led by Dusty Taylor, a freshman from Craig, Colo., and his brother, Denton Taylor, a sophomore, in team roping. The two combined for a second-place finish in the overall average. They were steady in the two rounds of competition, splitting third place in the long go and third in the short go to combine for 250 points.

Junior Wyatt Hageman, of Jay Em, had his best effort in saddle bronc riding, placing second overall. He had only the sixth-best mark in the opening round, but had a strong second-place finish in the short go to end as the average runner-up.

For the season, Sheridan College has a firm grip on the CRMR lead with 2,925 points, while CSC, the defending regional champion, is a distant second, 912 points behind the Generals. CWC is third with 2,000 points, Gillette College is fourth with 1,960, and the Cowboys are in fifth place with 1,850.

Just the top two teams send full six-member clubs to this summer’s College National Finals Rodeo in Casper.

The next CRMR competition is this weekend in Torrington for the Eastern Wyoming College rodeo.

For individual and team results from the Gillette College rodeo, click here.

For CRMR overall standings, go here.