Jesse Brown was the steer wrestling champion at the inaugural Cinch Playoffs Governor’s Cup, but he almost didn’t have that opportunity after advancing eighth out of eight to Saturday’s Semifinals.
The big $25,000 payday for first place in the Short Go was looming over all of the contestants all weekend, but Brown said that his plan wasn’t just to try to survive and advance, the $10,000 for first place in Rounds 1 and 2 was what he had his eye on.
“Both those rounds paid so good, but you know, how the chips fell, I was good enough to get by and I was happy with that,” he said.
After a 4.3 in Round 1 and a 4.9 in Round 2, Brown finished first in the Semifinals, which allowed him to go last and know what he had to beat. He was ultimately 3.4 to best a 3.7 from Will Lummus and 3.9 from both JD Struxness and Tristan Martin.
“The steers were lined up for (the Finals) to be fast and it was one-head for all the money and I got to be last out, which is kind exciting, you know bottom of the ninth inning type of thing,” he said. “I think being last is cool, you have the last say, for good or for bad.”
Brown’s confidence was aided by the fact that he riding Tyson, who Curtis Cassidy sent down from Canada for Brown and Dakota Eldridge to ride in South Dakota.
“I was just lucky to ride him, I always have a ton of confidence (on him),” he said. “He was great for that setup, start was fast, Tyson’s the best.”
Brown, who had never been to Sioux Falls prior to last weekend, said the city put on an event that would’ve been memorable even if he didn’t win it.
“They put on an awesome deal for us there in that Denny Sanford Arena, that was great and for it to be the cumulative for the whole year of these big rodeos....They gave away some awesome prizes, not just winning, being part of it was really cool.”