Carter County Greats Part I

Editor's note: For the last month and a half, Eagle readers have been sending in their picks for the top five greatest Carter County athletes of all time. Over the next few weeks, the Eagle will be revealing a top ten list. Following are the top three athletes, based on the opinions of our readers.

1) Robert "Bob" Lasater: Lasater grew up in the Tie Creek area and graduated from CCHS in 1954. He was a standout four sport athlete at CCHS and excelled in football, basketball and baseball at Dickinson State College. As a fullback, he helped lead the 1953 Bulldog football team to an undefeated season.

In the 1953 Eastern Montana C Football Championship, the team's final game of that undefeated season, Lasater scored 7 touchdowns, ran in an extra point and kicked two to account for 45 points. CCHS defeated Medicine Lake that day, 51-36.

Lasater was also a part of the 1951-52 basketball team that won 24 of 28 games and played for an undefeated CCHS baseball team in 1954. He was an All-American football player at Dickinson and later became the school's 13th head football coach. Lasater coached for four seasons, from 1972 until 1975, and had a record of 21-14-1. He was elected into the Dickinson State Blue Hawk Hall of Fame in 1981. Lasater currently resides in North Dakota.

2) B.J. Padden: Although from Carter County, Padden, born in 1983, attended Harding County High School in Buffalo, South Dakota where he won two state wrestling championships. He also competed in the state track meet for two years and was an All-State football player, helping his team to play in two state championship games.

Padden finished eighth at 171 pounds at the high school national championship in 2001. He was named the Outstanding Wrestler at the 2000 Walt Disney Duals and was inducted into the South Dakota Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2016. At one time, he won 46 consecutive high school matches.

After high school, Padden attended Nebraska University. In 2005, he was an All-American, Big 12 Champion and was named the university's Most Valuable Wrestler. In 2006, he earned his second straight All-American honor at 197 pounds with a third-place finish and was again the Big 12 Champion and named the NU Most Valuable Wrestler. Padden was one of the top-five 197-pound wrestlers in the nation throughout the 2005-06 season and finished his collegiate career with a 98-39 record.

In 2008, Padden finished fifth at the Olympic Trials in Las Vegas, Nevada.

3) Ivan Teigen: Teigen was born in 1958. The Capitol area cowboy also attended Harding County High School. In 1976 he won the South Dakota State steer wrestling and bareback riding championships. In 1980, he joined the PRCA as a steer wrestler. That year, he was also named the Badlands Circuit Rookie of the Year.

In 1990 Teigen won the NFR steer wrestling average title.

He won titles at Cheyenne (Wyoming) Frontier Days Rodeo, Greeley (Colorado) Independence Stampede, Clackamas County Fair & Rodeo (Canby, Oregon), Colorado State Fair (Pueblo) and PRCA Season Finale (Casper, Wyoming) in 1996. The following year he finished ranked sixth in the standings with almost $94,000 in earnings.

In 2004, Teigen won the average title at the Deadwood Days of '76 Rodeo and tied for the Wrangler ProRodeo Tour Round win at California Rodeo Salinas. He also placed in 3 of 10 rounds at the NFR and won Round 7 with a 3.3-second run.

Teigen qualified for the NFR seven times (1988, 1990, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1997, 2004) during his professional career. He retired in 2010 but continued to compete as an amateur.