FRIDAY, JUNE 26, 2020 — BRIDGER VALLEY PIONEER — PAGE A9

SportsPioneer

LARAMIE — The Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA) has announced its early wave of Srixon/Cleveland Golf All-America Scholars for the 2019-20 season, and five members of the University of Wyoming men’s golf team earned the honor. The five Cowboys named All-America Scholars were: Kirby Coe-Kirkham, Jared Edeen, Dan Starzinski, Carl Underwood and Bryce Waters. It marks the most Cowboys to earn the honor in the same year in the history of Cowboy golf.

Wyoming’s five individuals were the second most of any NCAA Divi-sion I team in the country. Duke and Louisville each had six individuals

earn the honor to lead the way. Wyo-ming was one of only 12 Division I universities to have five individuals recognized. The Cowboys’ previous high for a single season was four individuals. UW had four men’s golfers earn the honor in both 2017 and 2018.

Starzinski graduated with a civil engineering degree from UW but will return for the 2020-21 season after the NCAA granted spring sport student-athletes an extra season due to cancellation of the 2020 spring season because of the coronavirus. This is the second consecutive year that he was named a GCAA Srixon/Cleveland Golf All-America Scholar. The other four Cowboys all

earned the award for the first time in their careers. Coe-Kirkham is an energy systems engineering major and just completed his sophomore season. Edeen, a sophomore last season, and Waters, a junior, are both management majors. Underwood, a junior, is a finance major.

“These five young men — Dan, Kirby, Carl, Bryce and Jared — have committed a great deal of time and effort to achieve at a high level in the classroom and on the golf course. We couldn’t be prouder of their ac-complishments,” said Joe Jensen, University of Wyoming Director of Golf and head men’s golf coach.

“To have five different individu-als earn this award in the same year

Kirby Coe-Kirkham Jared Edeen Dan Starzinski Carl Underwood Bryce Waters

UW has second most honorees of any team in the country, most in a single year in Cowboy history

Five Cowboys honored as Srixon/Cleveland Golf All-America Scholars

is not only a reflection of the young men in our program, but also is a re-flection of the hard work by our aca-demic counseling staff and the great relationships our student-athletes have developed with the faculty. I want to thank all of those people who work with our young men to help them achieve their academic goals.

“It is exciting to know that all five of these student-athletes are return-ing next season. I’m looking forward to seeing what they will accomplish this coming season and in the years to come.”

It was a record setting year for the award as 614 student-athletes earned the title of All-America Scholar, the most since the award’s inception in 1982. Of the 614 honorees, 376 players were Division I selections, 99 in Division II, 108 in Division III, 18 from NAIA, and 12 from NJCAA. 2020 marks the first year

in which sophomores were eligible for the award.

To be eligible for Srixon/Cleve-land Golf All-America Scholar status, an individual must be a sophomore, junior or senior academically in Divi-sion I, II, III, and NAIA, or receiving their Associate’s Degree and in their last year of athletic eligibility in the NJCAA. In addition, they must have a stroke-average under 76.0 in Divi-sion I, 78.0 in Division II, 78.0 in NAIA, 79.0 in Division III and 77.0 in NJCAA, and maintain a minimum cumulative career grade-point aver-age of 3.2. For 2019-20 only, they must participate in 40% of the team’s competitive rounds.

A second announcement of Srix-on/Cleveland Golf All-America Scholars that include the second wave of nominations as well as those schools on the quarter system will be announced sometime next month.

By Allayana DarrowThe Sheridan PressVia Wyoming News Exchange

SHERIDAN — Native American tribal members must abide by Wyoming Game and Fish Department regulations when hunting off an established reservation, according to an order handed down by Sheridan County Circuit Court Judge Shelley Cundiff June 11.

Cundiff sided with central findings in prior case law and issued a landmark ruling that sets a precedent for how tribal members are subject to Wyoming game laws on national forest land — now six years after Clayvin Herrera was cited for taking big game without a license on the Bighorn National Forest in Sheridan County Circuit Court Jan. 18, 2014.

Herrera pleaded not guilty and moved to dismiss both charges in mid-2015. The defense initially argued the BNF area where Herrera shot an elk constituted unoccupied land, on which he could hunt unregulated as an “off-reservation treaty hunter,” Cundiff’s order explained.

In initial hearings, the state countered that forest land was not unoccupied due to BNF elk conservation guidelines and therefore, Herrera was subject to prosecution.

“This court, following the decision in Crow Tribe of Indians v. Repsis...denied the motion finding that the BNF was occupied and if not occupied, there was a conservation necessity to regulate Treaty Hunters,” Cundiff wrote.

Herrera was found guilty and appealed his case up to the U.S. Supreme Court. Along the way, 4th Judicial District Court upheld his convictions but did not address conservation as an argument for preclusion from prosecution.

The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed Crow

hunting rights and overturned previous court decisions based on occupation arguments — citing neither Wyoming statehood nor BNF establishment nullified the treaty.

In May 2019, Crow Chairman AJ Not Afraid said the U.S. Supreme Court decision marked a

victory for Apsaalooke people and other tribes with treaties, as recorded on the Native Ameri-can Rights Fund website. The right to hunt in the Bighorn Mountains on or off the reservation is of current and ancestral importance, he said.

The high court then remanded the case back

to lower courts to readdress whether the area where the elk was killed on the BNF was occu-pied per the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie and if state conservation rules apply to treaty hunters.

“The court’s ruling regarding conservation necessity has not been under appellate review and should be open to the court for further consideration,” Cundiff wrote, explaining her approach to reanalyzing the case. “As the finder of fact, this court will investigate the proceed-ings in Repsis and determine if issue preclusion bars the defendant from relitigating the issues of occupation and conservation necessity.”

After reviewing exhibits within the case, the court found adjudication was “full and fair” in allowing the Crow Tribe to present, litigate and appeal its argument that BNF is unoccupied but that based on Repsis — a case that also established whether the Wyoming Game and Fish Department can regulate tribal hunters in BNF — Herrera could not use occupation as a defense.

Cundiff’s order cites a Crow Fish and Wild-life Commission code adopted in 1992 that recognizes a need for resource conservation regulations for Crow tribal members who hunt and fish off-reservation.

The court further found that Repsis did clari-fy a binding agreement between the Crow Tribe and the state regarding the need for wildlife conservation, and that WGFD regulations were “reasonable and necessary for conservation,” including for off-reservation treaty hunting.

In the order, the court concluded that issue preclusion applies to both the occupation and conservation ruling cited in Repsis, the findings in Repsis apply to Herrera’s case and that the defense’s motion to dismiss prosecution based on treaty rights was appropriately denied by the court before trial.

Court: Tribal members must obey state hunting rules

An antelope grazes in Wyoming. A recent court ruling affirms that tribal members in Wyo-ming must obey state hunting rules and regulations. (COURTESY PHOTO)