By SAMI MCGUIRE, Sports Editor
The spring season of rodeo is starting off on Friday in Manhattan, Kansas. The rodeo will be at the stadium at Kansas State University. The Ranger rodeo team will be competing against all the other college rodeo teams throughout the Central Plains Region, which consists of the colleges throughout Oklahoma and Kansas.
Currently the Ranger men’s team is sitting fifth in the team standings, 705 points behind first. The Ranger women’s team is sitting fourth, 975 points behind first.
Many of the Rangers are sitting well in their individual standings also. Mason Bowen, a senior, is sitting fourth in the tie down roping.
“My main goal is to win the region, and of course, make the College Finals,” Bowen said. He also said he is preparing now by becoming physically and mentally prepared to win under any circumstance.
Ranger men are sweeping the steer wrestling standings. Joby Allen, a senior, is sitting second, 20 points behind William Carpenter of Oklahoma Panhandle State University. Sitting third in the steer wrestling standings is Colt Madison, a freshman. Fourth in the steer wrestling standings is Cody Devers, a junior. Sitting fifth in the steer wrestling standings is Grayson Allred. The steer wrestling is a tight race, and they are sitting all within 65 points of first place.
Dylan Schulenburg, a junior, is sitting first in the team roping standings with his partner Wyatt Miller from Fort Scott Community College. Kassidy Bittle, a freshman, and Edgar Fierro, a junior, are sitting third in the team roping standings.
Fierro said “Our goal is to make the college finals and having enough confidence in each other to get there is key.”
Katy Miller, a junior, is sitting eighth in the breakaway roping standings, 110 points away from first. Miller is also sitting fourth in the goat tying standings.
Miller said her goal is to make the college finals, and she hopes to win the women’s all around title. Miller has been working hard in and out of the arena to achieve these goals. “To achieve those goals I make it a point to rope calves and tie goats every single day without any excuses,” she said. “Also going to the gym is a huge priority to me everyday.”
Another Ranger is sitting fifth in the goat tying standings, Tearnee Nelson, a senior.