Wawa Ben Jr. and Brandon Ben are making the most of their 2025 Resistol Rookie of the Year season, sitting second and third mid-July in the race that ends Sept. 30.
The rookie race has been hot as the summer run treks on. As of July 15, Wawa is sitting third in the heading standings, while Brandon is second in the heeling, each with $25,797.33 won on the year. James Arviso leads the Resistol Rookie heading standings with $38,766.97, and Nicky Northcott tops the heeling race with a solid $55,025.81 won. But the Ben brothers are keeping their cool, entering the big rodeos and catching the steers that matter.
Reno Rookies
The bright lights of the Reno Rodeo were no issue for the Bens. They went 6.1 in the first round to stay solid, 5.1 on their second steer and wrapped up week with a 6.8 in the finals. After it was all said and done, the brothers took home $7,008 a man for third in the finals and fourth in the average with a 18.0 seconds on three head.
“Once you make it to the perfs, that’s when, like, the nerves kicked in and I was like, ‘I’m actually at Reno,’” Wawa said. “And then when I made the short round—we actually didn’t enter planning to make the Reno short round. So, the day before Reno, we were 24 hours away. We were in Oklahoma, and we drove 24 hours, got to Reno, like, two hours before the short round started. That’s what you call your rookie year —entering a long way away.”
After the day-long journey from Okmulgee, Oklahoma, to run that last steer in Reno, the average placing was just the cherry on top for Brandon.
“I think just being able to enter it in general was the cool part, just being able to be there,” Brandon added. “It’s a cool rodeo, never been there before. I don’t know, that just topped it off—even just making the short round in general was pretty dang cool to us.”
Entered up
The Bens have been putting their run together across the country, picking up checks across the Southwest. They were second in Gunnison, Colorado (4.5 for $2,605 a man), placed at Cody, Wyoming (4.9 for $1,177 each), and went 4.2 in Livingston, Montana, over the Fourth for $5,622 each. According to Brandon, Livingston was a standout win—it was their first PRCA victory that didn’t involve a tie with another team.
On top of the PRCA trail, they’re also entering the Indian Nation Finals Rodeo (INFR) Tour rodeos, making for a busy summer schedule.
Both brothers have made the INFR in Las Vegas at the South Point multiple times in their careers.
The INFR Tour rodeos use an enter-twice format, which, according to the Bens, usually means double the teams compared to a typical PRCA rodeo.
“It seems like the barriers longer over [at the Indian rodeos],” Wawa said. “I feel like it’s a little tougher over there, you know—the setup’s tougher. In the winter, they’re mainly in Arizona. In the summer, like, you’re travelling from Montana to North Dakota, South Dakota, to Oklahoma. There’s one in Wyoming and then there’s one in Fort Hall, Idaho. It’s not four rodeos a weekend, it’s one every weekend, or every other weekend.”
Brandon is enjoying the grind of the ProRodeos, though.
“The payouts nowadays are crazy,” he said. “It helps out a lot when you do do good. I don’t know, it’s just fun to be able to be competing at the higher level. The Indian rodeos—yeah, they’re very tough and all, and I’m not going to count them out or anything. But I don’t know, I think it’s more fun to be able to be ProRodeoing.”
At the time of this writing, Wawa and Ben are headed to Salinas and are away from home for a while.
Brothers who win
There are plenty of brother roping duos who’ve found success—the Minor brothers, the Grahams from Canada, Oklahoma’s Yeahquo boys, Kellan and Carson Johnson, just to name a few.
For the Bens, winning as brothers isn’t a novelty—it’s what they’ve always done.
When asked who helped him most with his roping, Wawa didn’t hesitate.
“It’s back and forth with Brandon and my dad,” he explained. “They taught me everything, basically.”
For Brandon, getting to win with family is just a little sweeter.
“I’ve never really thought about it because we rope with each other all the time,” he said. “I guess I would say so, I don’t really think about all that too much but yeah—I guess if you put it that way, roping with your brother, it makes it even better. I mean we travel together, we do everything together, so it a lot easier.”
