By SARAH OTTO
Staff Reporter
The Ranger’s rodeo team will kick off the spring semester with their first rodeo at Kansas State February 20-22.
They have two rodeos in March, one at Garden City, Kan., February 27 through March 1 and Fort Scott, Kan. March 6-8. April will be a busy month for the rodeo athletes as they will have three rodeos on back to back weekends. The first of those rodeos will take place at Southwestern Oklahoma State University April 9-11. Then they will head on to Ft. Hayes, Kan. the 17-19. Finally, the rodeo athletes will wrap up their season April 23-25 at Oklahoma Panhandle State University.
Once the season is all wrapped up and points and placing’s are in, the athletes will find out who will make it to the College National Finals Rodeo. Northwestern currently has 19 rodeo athletes in the top 15 of their events. Hayden Pearce is the only cowboy and Karley Kile is the only cowgirl to be in the top 15 in two events. The women’s team heads into the spring semester first overall, as the men’s team heads in as fourth overall.
John McGinn, also known as Big Mike, is a Junior from Oregon and has taken control of the steer wrestling where he is sitting first in the standings. McGinn talked about his goals for the rest of the rodeos this season and he plans to qualify for the College National Finals Rodeo. He also said, “I just want to keep practicing and critiquing myself on my performance. I also want to keep my horses working good.” He talked about how tight the race is to be first overall in the steer wrestling, and his plan to stay on top is to keep placing at all the upcoming rodeos.
Taige Trent is a Sophomore from Kansas who is leading the breakaway roping heading into the final six rodeos of the season. Trent faced a setback during the winter break while trying to stay on top of her game for the upcoming rodeos. Her main horse “Thunder” got hurt so she spent her time doctoring him, and roping off of young horses so that she could stay as sharp as she could. Thunder is still being doctored but Taige said he will be better soon. She was talking about the pressure of being in the lead and how to stay in the lead when she said, “I will practice everyday and be sure to make smart throws at the rodeos. I’ll just take each rodeo one at a time and let the chips fall where they may.”