By SARAH OTTO
Staff Reporter
Sixteen Rangers made it back to the championship round at the Southwestern college rodeo.
Two Northwestern cowboys made it back to the championship round in calf roping.
Maverick Harper was ninth in the long round and fifth in the short round. Dalton Richards split 10th, 11th and 12th in the long round, but suffered a no time in the short round.
In steer wrestling, Laine Herl claimed seventh place in the long round, and ended up eighth in the short round. Grayson Allred split fifth and sixth in the long round and finished fifth in the short round.
Five cowboys represented Northwestern in the team roping short round.
Robert Olson and Scott Day finished the long round splitting eighth and ninth, but endured a no-time in the short round. Mike McGinn and Stephen Culling claimed third place in the long round, but also had a no-time in the short round. Dustin Searcy took control of the team roping with his partner Hunter Munsell from W-C. The team won the long round, the short round and the average.
Searcy has goals of still making the college finals this summer and was happy with how his weekend turned out. He said, “Winning the long round, short round and average helped us a lot for our chance to make the CNFR. We needed to do good this weekend, and thankfully we did.”
Searcy didn’t let the pressure of needing to do well hold him back. “I felt some pressure, but it was just pressure I put on myself. I didn’t make the CNFR last year and that made me hungrier to not let it happen again this year since it’s my senior year,” he said. When Searcy backed into the box during the short round, he had one thought on his mind, he said. “I just needed to do my job. I’ve roped thousands of steers practicing and there’s no reason I didn’t have one more left in me in the short round. I knew we had to be faster than 7.0 to win the short go and average. I took that approach to stay aggressive and not overthink anything. I just let my instincts take over.”
In breakaway roping, Elli Price split seventh and eighth in the long round and finished fourth in the short round. Shayna Miller split fourth and fifth in the long go but suffered a no-time in the long round. Sage Allen faced the same issue. She was third in the long round but faced a no-time in the short round. Karley Kile claimed fame when she won the long round, placed second in the short round and won the average.
Three Northwestern cowgirls made it back in barrel racing. Sara Bynum and Kelsey Harper were in a sixth, seventh and eighth-way tie in the long round.
Bynum finished eighth in the short round and Harper finished 10th. Kelsey Cloud was third in the long round and third in the short round.
Kile and Miller made another appearance in the championship round in the goat tying. Kile finished fifth in the long round, but placed ninth in the short. Miller was third in the long round, and was in a three-way tie for first place in the short round. She was also second in the average.
Miller was focused on keeping her spot in the lead this weekend. She said, “It was raining during my first run, which made it a struggle to keep my hands and string dry for my run. I just wanted to be smart and make two solid runs to stay in the lead.” Her horse has been sore, but worked really well for Miller, which she considered a blessing.
She credited a lot of her success this year to her horse. She said, “My horse, Holiday, just turned 8. I got him from some neighbors in South Dakota when he was 4 and not very broke. He learned really fast; I took him to some jackpots then started hauling him and winning some money. He has really stepped up his game this year and made me step up mine too.”
Out of the eight rodeos the Rangers have competed at this season, Miller has claimed two first-place finishes, three second places and two third places; with her mind set to make the college finals.
The Rangers will be back in action April 17-19 at the Fort Hayes State University rodeo before heading to Guymon, Okla. for the OPSU rodeo on at the end of April, the last stop before the College National Finals rodeo in Casper, Wyo.