CHEYENNE, WY – Gage Davis was in his peak form over the weekend as the Laramie County Community College rodeo team hosted the Central Rocky Mountain Region at the Shawn Dubie Memorial Rodeo, with Davis walking away as the champion steer wrestler.
The local community showed up in force as well with over 2,000 making their way through the LCCC Arena over the weekend.
"It's awesome. You get this place packed with as many people as we had almost every performance, it kind of reminds you of a big scale rodeo," Davis said. "It's cool, the atmosphere, having trouble hearing each other as you talk to each other by the shoots, it's pretty neat."
The men's team rode with the crowd and finished in fourth place while also matching their best point total from a rodeo this year with 310 points and moving them to fifth in the overall standings for the CRMR.
Davis was almost unstoppable over the weekend in bulldogging. The junior split the fastest time in the long go with a 5.0 giving him the split with former Golden Eagle Rhett Witt. Davis came back for the short go and after seeing a 4.5 from Witt move to the top time, Davis jumped it by two-tenths to edge Witt out for the short go and the average crowns.
"There's no better feeling than a tight short go like that," Davis said. "Everyone is making good runs, and your competition is the steer you got so you just kind of let it all hang out and it was pretty fun."
"A lot of people would have put too much pressure on themselves, and things don't go right. Gage handled it really well. He just backed in there and made the best possible run on the steer he drew today, and it worked out really well," Head Rodeo Coach Dean Finnerty said.
The 175-point weekend bumped Davis all the way to second in the CRMR and gave Davis points in steer wrestling in three of the first four rodeos.
Cory Bomhoff continued his strong season in tie-down with another top three finish in the long go. His 9.0 was tied for second but Bomhoff failed to catch his calf in the short go and couldn't add to his point total anymore. He still sits in third place in the region standings and has points in all three of his last rodeo's.
Tate Miller was also able to add on more team points to the LCCC tally and continue to push his name up the region standings in bareback.
The sophomore put up two rides in the 70's for the first time in a rodeo and finished in fourth in the average with two 73's carrying the weight. His 146 on the weekend picked up 30 points to go with the 35 from his short go and the 20 from his long go.
"It feels good," Miller said after his best two scores of the season. "It's a big confidence booster. I've definitely improved a lot at staying under my rigging and working with my feet a lot."
Miller said he also feels the consistency that he has achieved has allowed him to improve in ways he didn't see before.
"It really helps you realize you are doing the same thing, and you can pick apart what you are doing wrong on those rides and improve on that. It just boosts your confidence knowing you can ride whatever they are running under you."
Season wise, that moves Miller into fourth in the CRMR and only 20 points behind the third-place rider with the top three guaranteed spots in Casper at the CNFR in June.
A few more points were garnered for the LCCC men by Gilbert Grey and Cannon Campbell who made it back with the 6th fastest team roping time of 8.7. The duo wouldn't be able to catch their short go calf and couldn't stack any more points up.
Grey also added some more individual points in tie down when his 10.3 in the short go netted him fourth in the short go and fifth in the average for 50 more points to his tally and now joins four other Golden Eagles in the top 20 of the tie down standings.
Campbell made it back as well in steer wrestling along with Bohdi Coombs, although neither secured any points.
For the women's team, there weren't any points waiting for them over the weekend from a team standpoint, but individually Kassidy Dunagan had a breakout in the LCCC home contest.
In goat tying the junior was able to finally get past the seventh spot in the standings and her 7.7 in the long go got her back to the short go where she finished in a tie for fourth place with a 7.5. That gave her a tie for fourth in the average and helped her pick up 85 points in the standings.
Dunagan moved up to eighth in the CRMR standings after four rodeos.
The Golden Eagles will be back at it again to close out the fall rodeo season when they travel to Lamar, Colorado on October 18-20.
"I'm not looking forward to Lamar," Finnerty said with a laugh. "It means the seasons gone by way too fast and we are about done for the fall. So no, I don't like seeing Lamar show up already, but it's been good, and the kids are on a roll, and I just think they will keep going."
Information on the rodeo can be found at www.golccc.com.