DSU rodeo enters mid-season break with decent Buena Vista performance

Oct. 11—ALTA, Iowa. — The Buena Vista University Stampede on Oct. 6-7 was a solid finish heading into the 2023-24 midseason break, with the DSU Blue Hawks women's team earning a hard-fought second-place showing and the men's team drawing a fourth-place finish. The team will not be back in action until the April 2024 timeframe, which will give the Blue Hawks time to prepare for the stretch-run through the remainder of the schedule.

The men's team finished with 70 points, well-behind fifth-place Mitchell Technical College and first-place Mid-Plains Community College, and meanwhile stands at sixth-overall in the standings with 981 points. The women's team is having a very-solid season at third-place with 1,373 points and are just behind South Dakota State University at 1,389.50 points and #1 Black Hills State University's 2,055.50.

But during the Buena Vista Stampede, the showings were few-and-far-between, with sophomore Colton Ryan Zubach tying in fourth-place in the team-roping header event with an 8.5 time/score for the men's team. Zubach won the long round in the team-roping and finished fifth overall, while sophomore Cody Barnett made it to the short round in the steer wrestling and ended in 10th place.

Over on the women's side, barrel-racing was again a strength with Kelly Jo Bang bringing in a third-place time/score of 32.23 and three other Blue Hawks finishing in fifth-through-seventh places in band-bang-bang fashion: Kaitlyn Marie Carter at 37.20, Emily Blake Beck at 37.59 and Kiarra Marie Reiss with a 32.72.

The final positioning was with an eighth-place finish for freshman Jaysee Jean Jones in the goat-tying event with a tie at 7.8, and that came in as a split for sixth-place in the long round and split eighth and ninth, overall.

The event standings after the fall season have senior Jory Boote in seventh place in tie-down roping, sophomore Colton Zubach is third in the team-roping header standings and Heather LaBree is currently 13th. Sophomore Cayden Kling is fourth in the team-roping heeling standings and sophomore Melissa Fuller is in 13th.

Overall, in the barrel-racing category, junior Kelly Bang is in third-place, sophomore Kiarra Reiss sits at fourth and junior Emily Beck is ninth. In the breakaway-roping, senior Kailyn Groves sits at fourth-place while sophomore Maci Maher is in eighth, and in goat-tying freshman Jaysee Jones is in second-place and sophomore Maci Maher is 10th.

With the fall rodeo season over, the DSU rodeo team will continue to practice into November before taking a break during the holiday seasons and will resume practice again in February in preparation for the spring season.

For more information about the DSU rodeo team, please keep reading The Dickinson Press and/or visit the websites at

https://collegerodeo.com/events/

or

https://www.dsubluehawks.com/sports/rodeo/index

.