The Chadron State College volleyball team (4-10 overall, 3-10 RMAC) lost their final match of the regular season on the road on Friday against the South Dakota School of Mines Hardrockers (5-9 overall, 5-7 RMAC). The match went to five sets, and the Eagles fell 25-19, 24-26, 25-22, 22-25, 4-15.

Mines’ Shyann Bastian recorded a rare triple-double, leading her team with 16 kills and 23 assists, and adding 20 digs with one block assist in the win.

Before going to extra points in the second set, the Eagles repeatedly came back from behind, never allowing their opponent to get more than a four-point lead.

After keeping the match neck-and-neck all night, the Hardrockers substantially pulled away from the Eagles in the fifth set to secure the victory. Mines started the fifth set 9-1.

For the Eagles, Rhiannon Nez was the only player earning double-digit kills on offense, with 10. She was followed closely behind by Chandler Hageman and Olivia Moten-Schell with eight each. Lexi Hurtado and Amelia Berg each had six kills.

The duo of Hageman and Moten-Schell had nine total blocks between them while Hurtado snuck in six block assists.

With the loss, CSC is near the bottom of the RMAC standings, with a performance indicator formula to determine which teams qualify for the league’s postseason.

Chadron State Track Teams Open Outdoor Season

Chadron State College athletes placed fourth in four events and added a two fifth place finishes at the Spank Blasing Invitational Track and Field Meet hosted by Colorado State-Pueblo on Saturday. The meet was the Eagles’ first outdoors since 2019.

The competition was stiff with the Universities of Colorado and Wyoming and Colorado State University involved along with eight Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference teams besides the Eagles. In addition, several former college standouts competed unattached.

Three of the Eagles’ top placings came in the jumps.

Sophomore Naishaun Jernigan of Springfield, Mass., was fourth in the long jump while going 23-7 ¼, classmate Derrick Nwagwu of Aurora, Colo., was fourth in the triple jump at 48-7 ¼ and freshman Jourdaine Cerenil of Pine Bluffs, Wyo., earned a fourth by clearing 5-3 in the women’s high jump.

Nwagwu’s performance would have been an NCAA provisional mark, ranked sixth nationally, if not for the assistance of a 4.2 meter-per-second tailwind.

During the indoor season, Jernigan had a best of 24-3 in the long jump, Nwagwu triple jumped 48-4 and Cerenil cleared 5-3 ¼.

Another CSC high jumper, Miranda Gilkey of Lusk, Wyo., tied for fifth in the long jump at 5-1 Saturday while Alec Penfield, also of Lusk, was eighth in the men’s high jump at 6-4 ¾.

One of the Eagles’ top performances was turned in by freshman Quest Savery of Miles City, Mont. He finished fourth in the javelin with a mark of 183 feet even. Only seven Chadron State athletes have cast the spear farther than that during their careers.

Savery was a standout javelin thrower at Miles City High School. However, another CSC freshman, Dylan Soule of Polk, Neb., was competing in the event for the first time in his life since the javelin is not thrown in Nebraska high school ranks. Soule’s best toss sailed 159-5, good for eighth place.

The Eagles also were fifth in the men’s 4×400 meter relay. The runners were Osvaldo and Osiel Cano of Oshkosh, Harley Rhoades of Douglas, Wyo., and Greg Logsdon of Yoder, Wyo. Their time of 3:21.24 was more than three seconds faster than the same quartet ran the relay while placing third at the RMAC Indoor Championships in late February.

The Eagles are planning to enter a meet at the University of Nebraska-Kearney this coming Saturday, April. 3.

CSC Softball Team Completes Series Victory Sunday

The Chadron State College softball team persevered in two extra-inning Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference games on Sunday, downing New Mexico Highlands University 5-4 and 4-0 to capture the series victory in Las Vegas, 3-1.

“Our pitchers did a great job getting ahead in the count, as well as limiting the number of batters we put on base,” said CSC Head Softball Coach Kaley Ness. “By doing so, they kept us in the game and gave our hitters extra opportunities to score runs. We’re proud of the team, and we look forward to working hard to get better this week in preparation for our games this upcoming weekend.”

CSC’s No. 1 pitcher Tia Kohl improved to 3-5 on the season with a complete nine-inning game in the third contest of the series Sunday morning. She had two of her three strikeouts in extra innings, holding NMHU without a hit in the final three frames, to finish with a .250 opponent batting average and a 3.11 earned runs average for the day.

Highlands jumped on the board first, in its first at-bat, with an RBI double by Carlee Gonzalez.

Micah Stouffer answered for the Eagles in the top of the second, hitting a solo homer with one out to even the score at 1-1.

It was three and one half innings before NMHU broke the tie, getting three of its nine base hits in the bottom of the fifth including an RBI single by Samantha Gamboa to go ahead 2-1.

CSC again answered the bell with a three-run sixth inning, taking a 4-2 lead. The Eagles got four walks and singles from Gabby Russell and Addison Spears, with the latter batting in the go-ahead RBI.

New Mexico Highlands evened things up with a sixth-inning homer by Brooklynn DeLozier, good for two more scores.

Things remained knotted 4-4 until an unearned ninth-inning, game-winning run represented by Bailey Marvel on a fielding error by the Cowgirls.

Gamboa fell to 0-3 in the pitching circle with the seven and two-thirds inning decision, in which she exited in the sixth and re-entered in the seventh to allow the leadoff single to Marvel.

Peyton Propp twirled an eight-inning two-hitter in the late game. She advanced her record to 3-6 by fanning eight NMHU batters and walking only two, going the distance for a complete game shutout.

CSC left runners on base in each of the first six innings, yet the game remained scoreless headed into the top of the eighth.

There, the Eagles went on a hitting spree, getting one walk and five singles from Ellie Owens, Spears, Mackenzi Kroll, Samantha Conradie, and Sloane Quijas.

Ahead 4-0, Propp struck out the final batter in the bottom of the ninth to punctuate the win.

Nathalie Blattmann received the loss for the Cowgirls, falling to 3-6.

Both of Highlands’ base hits in the game were swatted by Tamia Yellowman.

Quijas and Conradie led the Eagles in the batter’s box on Sunday, both going 3-for-7.

For the series, Kroll and Stouffer took top billing for the Eagles. While each player homered twice, Kroll hit 4-for-10 with six RBI, three runs scored, and two walks while Stouffer was 5-for-16 with one walk.

CSC improved to 7-13 (7-9 RMAC) over the weekend, while NMHU fell to 5-15, all in league play.

The Eagles are back at home on Friday, hosting MSU Denver, which is riding an eight-game winning streak. That series is set to conclude on Saturday.

Fawver Selected RMAC Indoor Freshman Of The Year

Morgan Fawver, a freshman sprinter from McCook, Nebraska, was honored by the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference head track and field coaches as the league’s male Freshman of the Year for the 2020-21 indoor track and field season.

In addition, nine Eagles received a total of 12 All-RMAC First or Second Team awards, as a result of placing highly in their respective events.

Fawver’s conference meet performances earned him three All-RMAC awards. He ran 6.80 seconds in the 60 meters for a silver medal, took third in the 200 meters with a time of 21.956, and he tied his season-best long jump mark of 7.05 meters (23-01.75) for fifth in that event. Fawver raked in 18 of the Eagles’ 72.5 team points, which placed the team fourth in the team standings.

Student-athletes placing in the top three in their individual events, or winning the relay races outright, are awarded an All-RMAC First Team certificate. Second Team honors go to those placing fourth through sixth individually, or finishing as the relay runners-up.

First Team honors also went to Osvaldo Cano in the 400 meters, Naishaun Jernigan in the long jump, Derrick Nwagwu in the triple jump, and Pete Brown in heptathlon. For the CSC women, Miranda Gilkey earned First Team in the high jump.

Other than Fawver in the long jump, Second Team honors also go to Emory Yoosook in the long jump, Alec Penfield in high jump, Jernigan in triple, and Dylan Soule in the heptathlon.

Superlatives were also awarded to Track Athletes of the Year, Field Athletes of the Year, and Coach of the Year, as well as women’s Freshman of the Year.

Track Athletes of the Year were Layla Almasri of the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, for the women, and Charlie Sweeney of Western Colorado for the men.

Field Athlete of the Year went to women’s jumper Hannah Meek and men’s jumper Peter Ackah, both of UCCS.

The women’s Freshman of the Year was Josie Coffey, a high jumper, of Colorado Mesa.

Ross Fellows of UCCS claimed Coach of the Year for both women’s and men’s teams, winning the meet titles on both sides.

McCook Freshman Excels For Eagles

Freshman Morgan Fawver of McCook continued to excel for the Chadron State College track and field team at the Yellow Jackets Spring Open Meet at Black Hills State last weekend.

Fawver won the 100-meter dash in 10.59 seconds and was the runner-up in the long jump by going 23-2 ½. His 100-meter time is among the Eagles’ top 12 marks all-time. It also was faster than any of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference sprinters posted in the 100 at the meet Colorado State-Pueblo hosted last weekend.

The meet in Spearfish was a big one, drawing most of the NCAA Division II and NAIA teams from the Dakotas as well as several from Minnesota and Montana. There were about 25 entries in both of the events Fawver entered.

Fawver had an excellent indoor season for the Eagles, finishing second in the 60 meters at the RMAC Championships in 6.80 seconds and long jumping 23-1 ¾ twice and 22-11 twice.

Chadron State’s other placings at Spearfish saw senior Javan Lanier place fourth in the long jump at 22-7 ¼, junior Joss Linse triple jump 44-8 ¼ to place fifth and sophomore Joe Dumsa clear 6-2 ¼ to take third in the high jump.

In addition, freshman Destiny Pelton won the women’s high jump at 5-1.

CSC Cowgirl Wins All-Around Title Again

Chadron State College senior Quincy Segelke was the all-around cowgirl for the second weekend in a row during Central Rocky Mountain Region action at the Eastern Wyoming College rodeo in Torrington over the weekend. She captured the title by placing second in breakaway roping and third in goat tying.

The previous weekend at the Gillette College rodeo, Segelke was second in both breakaway roping and goat tying and also was fifth in barrel racing to win that all-around title. Through seven rodeos on the 2020-21 schedule, the northeastern Colorado native has collected 886.5 all-around points, more than double the total for any of the region’s other cowgirls.

Contestants must place in at least two events at a rodeo to earn all-around points.

At Torrington, Segelke placed fourth in both breakaway go-rounds in 2.7 and 3.1 seconds, but was second overall. She tied for first and second in the first go-round of goat tying in 7.2 seconds and shared third and fourth in the second go-round in 7.7 seconds to finish third in that event.

Several other Chadron State entries also fared well at the EWC rodeo.

Tanner McInerney of Hulett, Wyo., placed third in both tie down roping go-rounds in 10.4 and 11.4 seconds and was second in the final standings, just one-tenth of a second behind the winner, Jace Staudt of the University of Wyoming. They earned the same amount of prize money.

Three CSC contestants also placed fourth in their events. They were Rowdy Moon of Sargent, who scored 67 and 65 points on his bareback rides; Carson Good of Long Valley, S.D., whose steer wrestling times were 5.1 and 7.5 seconds; and Hannah Hostetler of Philip, S.D., who joined with Sadie Podzimek of Casper College to complete their team roping runs in 11.8 and 7.5 seconds.

Hostetler and Podzimek were the only “all-girls” team to place among the top 10.

In addition, Brianna Williams of Buffalo, S.D., was sixth in goat tying with times of 7.8 and 8.4 seconds.

The next rodeo in the region will be April 16-18 at Casper College.