No. 5 | $170,703
- Age: 30
- Hometown: Marianna, Florida
- Career earnings: $1,694,661
- Major Rodeos: NFR; San Antonio (Texas) Stock Show & Rodeo; Pendleton (Ore.) Round-Up; NFR Open at the Pikes Peak or Bust Rodeo (Colorado Springs, Colo.); Ellensburg (Wash.) Rodeo; Snake River Stampede (Nampa, Idaho); Ogden (Utah) Pioneer Days; San Angelo (Texas) Stock Show & Rodeo; Farm-City Pro Rodeo (Hermiston, Ore.); Dixie National Rodeo (Jackson, Miss.); National Western Stock Show & Rodeo (Denver, Colo.); Pioneer Days Rodeo; Mandan (N.D.) Rodeo Days.
- Major Ropings: Lonestar Shootout, Windy Ryon Memorial Roping, Cinch USTRC National Finals of Team Roping
- NFR Qualifications: 8 (2017-18, 2020-25)
- Star Horsepower: Dude, JE Shining Rowdy (Mohawk), Snoopy Guy (Snoopy)
- Rope Choice: Lonestar Helix MS
The Southeast has produced some big-time names in team roping, and Florida native Dustin Egusquiza is no exception.
The 30-year-old originally from Marianna, Florida, is now an eight-time Wrangler National Finals Rodeo (NFR) qualifier and has gone into the Thomas & Mack as the regular-season leader a few times with the help of several different heelers, including NFR great Travis Graves and five-time NFR qualifier Levi Lord.
Before that, he was a young guy learning how to reach in the fast and short set-ups in the Southeast. Crowned the 2016 Resistol Rookie Header of the Year with help from Brad Culpepper, his first year on the ProRodeo road nearly qualified him for the big show, when he ended the year in the No. 18 spot.
He made it happen in 2017 and 2018, this time with the heeling being done by 22-time NFR man Kory Koontz. The 2017 season marked Egusquiza’s first NFR, where he and Koontz split the win in Round 4 and walked away with the win in Round 7. In 2018, they placed in two rounds. When his first two NFR years were all said and done, he had won $143,881.
After barely missing the NFR in 2019 — he ended up 16th in the world — he picked up Graves to start his six-year NFR-appearance streak. That year, the team won two rounds in the Thomas & Mack and were $87,000 richer when they left Las Vegas.
Egusquiza and Graves made the Finals the two years following their first feat and put together a list of wins across the country, including Odessa, Texas; Jackson, Mississippi; Vernal, Utah; Hermiston, Oregon; Nampa, Idaho; Ogden, Utah; and Bremerton, Washington.
During Round 6 of the 2022 NFR, Egusquiza added the title of $1 million-man to his name after a last-hole finish in the round put him over the mark.
“I wish I knew where that $1 million went,” Egusquiza told The Team Roping Journal’s Chelsea Shaffer after the milestone in 2022. “This is a pretty cool milestone. I dreamed my whole life of roping professionally, and I think hitting this mark means I’m doing that.”
For the 2023 and 2024 seasons, he picked up friend and South Dakota man Levi Lord, and the pair went on a winning streak.
“We both kind of have the same mindset as far as agreeing that there’s no point in backing down and just trying to catch,” Egusquiza said when they first started roping together. “We want to win first. There are situations where that doesn’t apply, like on our second steer in our bracket at Fort Worth, where all we had to do was win fourth to advance and we just went and caught.”
Together, they put winning runs together in San Antonio, Texas; Mandan, North Dakota; Loveland, Colorado; Logan, Utah; Dodge City, Kansas; Pendleton, Oregon; Guymon, Oklahoma; the Texas Circuit Finals in Waco, Texas; and, on the jackpot scene, the Windy Ryon in 2022 — a roping Egusquiza won with Graves a year prior.
“It’s not the main goal, obviously, but to come out on top of the Texas Circuit is coming out on top of a pretty tough group of guys,” Egusquiza said of their circuit victory. “It’s not easy to win the Texas Circuit; you have to win a lot, and most of the best team ropers live in Texas. With a setup like that, even the guys that didn’t make the NFR this year could go 3.0 seconds at any time.”
In both of their NFR appearances together, Egusquiza and Lord put together $130,015 in winnings, placed in six rounds and took home two split-round wins in 2024.
Egusquiza and Lord kicked off their 2025 season as a team and picked up big wins, including the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo and San Diego, California, for $29,000.
From there, Egusquiza switched to heading for J.C. Flake, and they made a run for Egusquiza’s eighth NFR appearance. They grabbed wins in Canby, Oregon; Heber City, Utah; Lehi, Utah; Durant, Oklahoma; and Castle Rock, Colorado. Egusquiza also got a win at the NFR Open with Lord after qualifying from their victory at the Texas Circuit Finals.
“But world championships essentially come down to one rodeo, and if you don’t do good in Vegas, you aren’t going to win it,” he told The Team Roping Journal’s Kendra Santos in 2025. “We’ve done good all year long the last several years, but I’ve had some heck at the NFR. There’s only one place like the Thomas & Mack. You can try to practice for it, but you can’t make it feel the exact same. The start is short, and steers leave fast. I feel ready and confident every time I show up, but when the gate opens in that little building, it takes a special horse.”
Egusquiza is heading to NFR No. 8 in the fifth spot in the world standings with $170,703 won.
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