Ryan Bozer:
Hey there. Good morning. High School rodeo events wrapped up in Wyoming last weekend, and here to share how South Dakota's Ropers and Riders did is SDPB Sports and Recreation reporter Nate Wek as we bring your morning in play. Nate, how are you doing this morning?
Nate Wek:
I'm doing good, Ryan, how about you?
Ryan Bozer:
I'm doing well. So like I just said, the rodeo wrapped up. How did South Dakota's athletes do?
Nate Wek:
Yeah, there was a pretty good showing from some of the South Dakotans that represented. Basically what they do is the top four placers from state, those individuals went to nationals. So for every event, South Dakota had four people representing. Just to give a little bit of an overview, I guess, as far as some of the team standings go, the boys finished sixth at Nationals, the girls finished 13th, and then they also do an overall where they combine girls and boys, and overall, South Dakota placed ninth in the nation as a team. So, pretty good showing. As we'll hear here, too, I'll kind of go through some of these results. One of them we'll really talk about because it's a pretty big deal, but I could just real quick just run through some of the headline results type of thing, just to give you an idea, if that sounds good, Ryan?
Ryan Bozer:
Yeah, absolutely. Let's hear about some of the kids and their achievements.
Nate Wek:
So breakaway roping, Arina Haugen out of Sturgis placed fifth, Kelsey Costello out of Newell placed 11th. Team roping, it was the Rance Bowden Sern Weishaar team from Belle Fourche, the two times state champions. They placed fifth at nationals this year in the team roping event. Arina Haugen, who we just mentioned out of the breakaway roping, she also placed 12th in pole bending and then she also placed 15th in barrel racing as well. Steer wrestling, Kate Ottens out of Scotland got fifth, Quinn Moon out of Creighton got ninth, and Trayvon Tulsma out of Springfield got 11th. Boys cutting, eighth was Rope Raghair out of Isabelle, Gabe Glines out of Smithwick got 20th. Reigned cow horse was Chase Brunch out of Pine Ridge, he got 15th, and then trap shooting, that's also an event that takes place at Nationals, Jude Sargent actually was the reserve champion, which basically is just a fancy way of saying second place runner up, however you want to say it.
But he got second in trap shooting. Jack Anderson got 17th in trap shooting. And then, here's what we're going to talk about because you noticed one of the names I mentioned a few times, being that Arina Haugen out of Sturgis, she actually placed fourth in the standings for all around cowgirl and she got first in the all around rookie cowgirl standing. So she was actually named the all around rookie cowgirl. She was named all around rookie cowgirl at State here just a month ago. And she also takes home those all around rookie cowgirl honors at Nationals as well. So, really big deal for Arina Haugen, to crown the rookie, you got to be a freshman. So for a freshman to kind of put on the showing that she did at Nationals is a really big deal for South Dakota, and it kind of brings excitement. There's going to be a lot of eyes on her now the next three years as she progresses through it.
Ryan Bozer:
Yeah, and as I recall, I think we've talked about Arina before, right? You had shared that her sister had said, "Oh, my sister's pretty good," and her sister herself is great, but said, "Oh yeah, my younger sister Arina, she's coming up. Just wait until she gets here and you just wait to see." And we have, right?
Nate Wek:
Absolutely. Right. Yeah, Landry Haugen was a tremendous champion. I believe she was all-around State. She was given all-around honors twice at State. She was a rookie, all-around honor holder as well at that State level. But she didn't get the all-around like her sister Arina did just now at Nationals, which is a whole nother type of story. Arina Haugen, her horse's name is Chili. I know we talked about horses last week and some of the names, so her horse's name is Chili. Just a quick little FYI on that. But yeah, both of her parents were involved in Rodeo. They both had rodeo careers, obviously we just mentioned Landry Haugen had a tremendous high school career and she's currently in rodeo at the collegiate level at the University of Wyoming, and now Arina Haugen, starting off her high school legacy pretty strong, doing a lot of pretty good things. Fifth in breakaway, 12th in pole bending, and 15th in barrel racing, for a freshman to do that on the National stage is pretty impressive.
Ryan Bozer:
Call me crazy, rodeo might be in their blood. It seems that family's got rodeo down, right?
Nate Wek:
Absolutely.
Ryan Bozer:
And now Nate, we mentioned a lot of names and a lot of competitors there at the beginning, right? Talking about all the different people that ranked, placed in what events. I've been seeing, I think on our social media feeds that we have interviews with some of these folks ahead of their competition. So if folks want to learn more about some of these competitors and how they were feeling going into Nationals, where can they find that?
Nate Wek:
The best way to do that is just to go onto our SDPB Sports Facebook page. You can check them all out. We also posted them on SDPB Sports Instagram account as well, so you can check them out there. All the interviews with all of the State champions are on there, so go ahead and go check that out. It can get you a little bit of a good taste as to how mature some of these kids are and how much they love the sport, which is really what it's all about, is the love for rodeo, the drive to be great, and to push yourself to Heights that maybe you never dreamt you could reach. So, go check those out. They're fabulous. Really highlights some of the great kids that we have in South Dakota. So yep, go check that out. And then it's one of those times of years too where we're going to turn the page and rodeo season as far as that high school level now is officially done.
And I start looking at this calendar, Ryan, and I'm like, "Man, high school football practice is starting three weeks. What's going on here?" It's like the summer's flying. We're going to be hit and fall here before you know it. And all the fall sports are going to be really, so to say, kicking off here very shortly. So, it's an exciting time. This is a great time of year when we get a little bit of an opportunity to enjoy the rest of your summer. And then, yeah, we are going to hit the ground running here once we get back into the fall.
Ryan Bozer:
Yeah, absolutely. Normally this is where I'd ask you what other sports stories you got that you're looking forward to, but you already shared. You got seasons that are on the horizon here very soon. And then, actually tomorrow, the Olympics kickoff. And I know there's at least a couple South Dakota and competitors in both the Olympics and Paralympics that are in Paris this year. You and I will both be watching those to see how those competitors do. I think it's going to be busy even if we're not necessarily busy, right?
Nate Wek:
Right. Absolutely. Yeah. Miles Krajewski out of Yankton, he's going to be participating in the Paralympics for badminton, and then Taryn Kloth, Sioux Falls kid went to a Gorman and then Creighton LSU, the whole beach volleyball thing got really good at it. So she'll be competing in beach volleyball in Paris as well. So it'll be fun to see how these South Dakota kids do on that world wide stage and get a good glimpse of that. And one more quick story I want to share with you, too, Ryan, last week I went to Burke. So, they had their Burke Stampede rodeo event taking place, and sometimes with community rodeos, they try to find something fun to do one of the days leading into the actual rodeo, some will do a concert, maybe some will do a big dinner type of gathering or a movie at the rodeo grounds or something like that.
Well, this year, Burke did an AAU wrestling tournament with 300 kids coming to town. You had kids that were traveling eight hours to be there, so you had kids from North Dakota, you obviously had a lot of local kids, but you had people from other states coming to Burke, South Dakota for an AAU wrestling tournament. They literally put two mats down inside of the rodeo arena. They put a big tarp down and then two wrestling mats over the top of it and wrestled right there inside the rodeo arena. It was absolutely incredible. And if you want to get a glimpse of that as well, we also shared a little video on our SDPB Sports Facebook page, so go check that out, too. That was... You want to talk about a unique event, that was pretty unique, pretty incredible, a lot of energy, a lot of kids were just having fun.
Ryan Bozer:
I was going to say, I love that. I would have reveled in the opportunity to wrestle in a rodeo arena as a kid.
Nate Wek:
Anybody can do it in a gym, right?
Ryan Bozer:
Anybody can do it in gym.
Nate Wek:
Do it outside. You do it on the hot mats, and when there's humidity and 80 degree temps, it's a little bit of a different element, right?
Ryan Bozer:
Dust kicking up different places. Yeah, absolutely. That's a different beast.
Nate Wek:
So, that was fun. It was a good time, and we'll talk a little bit more about that once we get into September, but that was because we're going to have a little bit more of a bigger feature on that that we'll share in September. But yeah, that was a fun event, and I look forward to talking a little bit more about that with you, too, Ryan.
Ryan Bozer:
Sweet. Well, I'm looking forward to all these conversations that we'll have coming up soon, but for now, I guess I'll let you get back and get prepared to watch all those sports, follow all those sports as they start popping up as we move into the school year.
Nate Wek:
Absolutely. Looking forward to it, Ryan.
Ryan Bozer:
All right. Thanks, Nate.
