Crawford, Stahl Make WRWC Gains The Patriot Ladies Open Win

THE WOLVES

Jackie Crawford and Annette Stahl Make 2024 WRWC Gains with Win at The Patriot Ladies Open

Jackie Crawford and Annette Stahl won The Patriot Ladies Open March 7, 2024, adding to their Women’s Rodeo World Championship standings.

The reigning WPRA World Champions Jackie Crawford and Annette Stahl were 34.57 seconds on four steers to win The Patriot Fort Worth Ladies Open against a field of wolfy female team ropers on Thursday, March 7, 2024, and earned some points toward the 2024 Women’s Rodeo World Championship.

Crawford and Stahl’s WRWC strategy

Crawford and Stahl both nominated The Patriot for the 2024 Women’s Rodeo World Championship, despite having already earned a generic qualification to the WRWC after winning at the X-Treme Team Roping’s Mardi Gras Classic in Stephenville Feb. 17.

“We won the qualification [to WRWC] a couple weeks ago in Stephenville but being in the top four is still that perk of getting to bypass the first round,” explained four-time WPRA World Champion Stahl. “So, if something haywire went wrong, we’d still have another chance, and I think that’s why I nominated, to stay in that top four.”

READ: Jackie Crawford and Annette Stahl Take 2023 WPRA World Titles

The top four from the WRWC Pro Leaderboard are seeded into the Semifinals at WRWC in Fort Worth May 13-16. Crawford wants to take any opportunity to have a spot in the Championship Round.

“If you look at the dollar-to-dollar ratio of what we’re going to spend nominating compared to what we have a chance at winning at that place all along the way, I [nominate] every event,” said Crawford, a 23-time WPRA world champion. “I think, every avenue that they give me a chance to be in on the last day, I’m taking that opportunity. Even though we’re already in, I’m not OK with that—it just doesn’t feel safe enough.”

How Crawford and Stahl won The Patriot Ladies Open

Icons of the sport, like Lari Dee Guy, Beverly Robbins, Whitney DeSalvo, Jessy Remsburg and Martha and Sarah Angelone, to name a few, threw their names in the hat at The Patriot as well, making for a morning of head-turning events.

“It’s always outstanding to go up against that group of girls,” Stahl said. “We’re blessed enough to be here to do it, and the blessings begin at the entry office when you show up and you have the horse and the money and the ability. God was with us all the way here through all of everything we went through this morning to get here. It’s a blessing to be here.”

Crawford and Stahl got the job done with a 9.22 in Round 1, an 8.45 in Round 2, a 9.19 in Round 3 and a 7.71 in the short round to pocket $6,050.

“We were just knocking them down,” Crawford said. “I think that’s the name of the game at all these all-girl ropings: you can’t get ahead of yourself. You have to go through the motions and not skip a step. You’ve got to go knock them all down.”

Jackie Crawford is Richest Woman in WCRA History

Crawford’s love for the WCRA

Crawford currently sits fifth on the WRWC Pro heading leaderboard with 3,754 points, and Stahl is No. 3 on the heel side with 4243.25 points. As the richest woman in WCRA history, Crawford sees the opportunities within the WCRA and WRWC and recognizes them for opening the doors for women in rodeo, starting with the first Windy City Roundup in 2019 in the breakaway roping.

“To me, that was what punched through the glass ceiling for us because, from then on, it just opened the floodgates to opportunity for women,” Crawford said. “The WCRA is the one that stuck its neck out and said, ‘Hey, there are huge numbers.’ They realized the impact that women have on the industry, and they’re the ones that stepped out and did it, and then everybody else followed suit in huge ways.”