Rodeo season resumes with Iowa State University event

AMES, IOWA — You can tell that Spring is officially back as the Dickinson State University rodeo team takes to the arena, and the squad performed well at the recent April 5-6 Iowa State University Rodeo in Ames with a third-place finish for the women’s team and a fifth-slot for the men.

“The team did all right, the girls team ended up third and the men’s team was in fifth, so we had a fair weekend,” DSU head rodeo coach Eudell Larsen said. “We have three left, and we’re practicing … but the problem with rodeo is it’s what you draw, and so that comes into play a little bit.”

DSU finished with 370 points for the men’s team, which was behind 610 for first-place Black Hills University — who narrowly defeated Mid-Plains Community College at 605 — with South Dakota State coming in third with 450 points and Iowa Central Community College at 405 in fourth.

For the women’s side, DSU ended up with 130, while Black Hills State earned 520 and first-place and SDSU turned in a 205-point result at second.

Individual results for the women included Maci Marisa Maher’s 13.0 time/score in goat-tying — good-enough for third — with Jaysee Jean Jones close-behind at 13.3 and in sixth.

For the men’s team, Jory Alan Boote took a fourth-place 140 score in the all-around, and second in tie-down roping with a time/score of 22.3 — which was narrowly behind winner Riley John Staton’s 21.9 from BHSU — and a team-roping/header time/score of 12.6. Meanwhile, in saddle-bronc riding, Blue Hawk Jacob J. Jessen earned a time/score of 50, which was behind Cash Dean Owens out of Iowa Central Community College’s 134 and Cayden Don Kling tied for sixth and BHSU’s Sawde Francis Reis with a time/score of 10.1. The team-roping/header for DSU, Colton Ryan Zubach, also earned a fourth-place finish with a time/score of 8.6.

Next-up for DSU’s rodeo team will be an April 12-13 event at South Dakota State University, which will be followed by the April 26-27 rodeo at Black Hills State University before the season ends with the May 3-4 finale at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

“The kids have been working hard, practicing and getting ready for the Spring rodeos, and we just gotta wait and see how everything falls out,” Larsen said. “But the potential is there and they’ve put in the hard work to do it, and we’ll see how things go.”

For more information about Dickinson State University athletics, please keep reading your Dickinson Press and/or visit https://www.dsubluehawks.com/landing/index . For updates on National Intercollegiate Rodeo, head on over to https://collegerodeo.com/events/ .