The Mid-Plains Community College Rodeo Team is holding steady as it nears the end of its rodeo season.
The team competed at the Bobby Gottsch Jr. Memorial Hastings College Rodeo in Hastings on Friday and Saturday.
Lane Kennedy, of Orleans, and Reed Murray, of Belvue, Kan., won the team roping for MPCC, while Riley Weehler, of Maloy, Iowa, and Chandler Comfort, of Elwood, placed fifth.
Murray was also fourth in the tie down roping.
In the roughstock events, Garrett Wickett, of Norfolk, came in second in the bull riding.
JW Schroder, of Taylor, was second in the saddle bronc riding, and his teammate, Wyatt Kunkee, of Lexington, was fourth.
Mykelsi Schnose, of Oelrichs, S.D., ended up third in the breakaway roping, and Shania Macomber, of Whitman, was fourth in the barrel racing.
Overall, MPCC finished fifth in both the men’s and women’s team standings.
“Reed Murray did phenomenal, but we have to pick six members whose points will count toward the team standings before the rodeo,” said Garrett Nokes, MPCC Rodeo Team timed event coach. “He wasn’t one of them, so his points didn’t count toward the team points. What he did do was put himself in a good position to make the College National Finals Rodeo in team roping and to have a chance for the all-around if he can be that strong the next two rodeos.”
Depending on how they do this weekend, Comfort, Weehler, Kennedy and Schnose could also be heading to nationals.
“Mykelsi just continued her hot streak at Hastings,” Nokes said. “She has really roped well this spring, and that’s coming off a fall where she didn’t score a point. Now, she’s third in the region after three rodeos.”
Wickett also made a strong comeback at Hastings, after running into some tough luck at UNL the weekend before.
“I don’t know if you could numerically say it solidified him, but his points at Hastings gave Garrett a really good chance at winning the region again,” Nokes said. “He really stepped up and rode both bulls. I would say there’s a 90 percent chance or better that he will go to the CNFR.”
The spring rodeos will wrap up this week. MPCC will compete in Spearfish, S.D. on Thursday and Friday in a rodeo postponed earlier in the spring due to weather. The team will then head to its final competition of the season in Dickinson, N.D. on Saturday and Sunday.
