BY BRETT NIERENGARTEN @PRORODEOBRETT
The ProRodeo season brought us to Guymon, Oklahoma for a Playoff Series Rodeo as well as to Uvalde, Texas for $50,000 Cactus Jack Xtreme Bulls event this past weekend.
Those were the headliners, but they weren’t the only rodeos as cowboy also added to their season earnings at the American Royal Rodeo in Kansas City as well as the Ozark Empire Rodeo, which also took place in the Show Me State.
From those four rodeos, all of this week’s notes are about athletes in the Top 15 in their respective events.
- Bull rider Stetson Wright won the Cactus Jack Xtreme Bulls with three rides of 86.5 points or higher. Wright won more about $17,000 for his 12-point victory in the Average in Uvalde. Over the last two weekends, the reigning World Champion is 6-for-7 with two 90-point rides and has added about $28,000 to his season earnings to go from No. 4 to No. 2 in the world. He is now within about $12,000 of Ky Hamilton.
- Tie-down roper Ty Harris has moved up 31 spots in two weeks following his win in Guymon. Harris impressed in Oklahoma with three runs of 9.3 seconds or faster to win the Average by more than a second. Couple the $7,800 he won in Guymon with the $9,300 he won in Clovis and Harris has gone from No. 45 to No. 14 since April 20.
- Saddle bronc rider Tanner Butner went 90 to get his first Playoff Series Rodeo win of the 2023 season. Butner, who has the highest marked saddle bronc of the season with 94 points in Fort Worth, added his second 90 of the year in Guymon aboard Frontier Rodeo’s Lonesome Eyes. For the season, Butner has career highs in both riding percentage (97) and average score (84.3). His previous career highs were both set a year ago when he rode 94 percent of his broncs for an average score of 81.2 points. He made his first NFR in 2022.
- Bareback rider Dean Thompson broke the arena record in Guymon. For the second consecutive year, a huge ride on Frontier’s Gun Fire won the Guymon Pioneer Days. Thompson was 92.5 to break the arena record of 92 last year set by Jess Pope, who went on to win his first World Championship. Following the win, Thompson is now one of three rookies in the Top 10 of the PRCA Bareback Riding World Standings.
- Bull rider Jestyn Woodward has ridden 8-of-9 since April 27. The rookie has gone from No. 12 to No. 5 in the world recently thanks to the best riding of his young career. This past weekend, he was 5-for-5 with four of them marked 85 or better between the Guymon Pioneer Days, Cactus Jack Xtreme Bulls and the American Royal Rodeo. He made more than $18,000 total across those three events.
- Bareback rider Jacob Lees placed second in both the American Royal Rodeo and Ozark Empire Rodeo. Lees, who is No. 13 in the world, pulled checks of more than $1,000 at both Missouri rodeos with 86 points at the American Royal and 84 points at the Ozark Empire.
- Rookie steer wrestler Cash Robb is the only cowboy to win a round in Clovis and Guymon the last two weekends. Robb has gained a spot in the Top 10 after winning around $6,000 in Guymon for a fourth place finish in the Average and a win in Round 2. The week prior, Robb won Round 1 in Clovis with a 4.8-second run.
