At the World Championship Junior Rodeo, Jacob Minton and Wilder Bragg won the youth team roping wire-to-wire, while Devin Johnson and Koda Peterson hung on for the junior title to cap off a big week at the Lazy E Arena.
Youth Division: Jacob Minton and Wilder Bragg
Jacob Minton and Wilder Bragg, partners year-round out of Arkansas, made the WCJR through the Last Chance Qualifiers—no buybacks, no second chances. They qualified outright in the second round. But it wasn’t a clean sweep of a week.
“First run wasn’t very good,” Minton, 13, said. “We had a leg and a mis-dally. Second run we got a little late out and still ran clean. Third run we had a steer that shouldered off—we were a little longer than we wanted to be. In the short round, we had a perfect steer to do what we needed it to do.”
That perfect steer mattered. Minton and Bragg were 8.39 in the semifinals and followed it with a 6.47 in the finals, the fastest run of the short round, for a two-run aggregate of 14.86 and a $2,813 payday.
“I knew I had to beat the team before us, so I took the shot I had to,” Bragg, 14, said of the short round.
Minton was focused on doing his job as quick as possible.
“Just trying to get out on the barrier and go out as quick as I could,” Minton added.
Minton rode a blue roan named Jagger, while Bragg rode his main mount, a sorrel named Hoey.
Junior Division: Johnson, Peterson Survive a Spill
Devin Johnson, 15, of Grantsville, Utah, and Koda Peterson, 16, of Delta, Utah, rope together year-round and came up through the Last Chance Qualifier at the 2026 WCJR.
Their semifinal run, a blistering 4.78, was the fastest of the round and built the cushion that ended up mattering most.
In the finals, their steer ducked right on Johnson, forcing him to reach; Peterson came around for a second swing to finish the run, and then his horse slipped and went down on top of him coming out of the run.
“I was a little nervous because we didn’t really know what the steer was going to do,” Peterson said. “But we’ve been doing it all week, so I knew we could make a good run. It came right and I was late, but he reached out and got him good, and I got around and took one more and got him. My horse just kind of slipped or something and came over on top of me—it was kind of rough, but we still made a good run.”
Johnson said hanging it out there instead of playing safe is just how they rope.
“It’s what we do best at,” Johnson said. “I was like, might as well do what we’ve been doing.”
Their 5.48 in the finals was good for fourth in the round, but their two-run aggregate of 10.26 was more than enough for the world title and a $3,493 payout.
They also both credited the cattle provided in the team roping all week.
“They’ve been so good here,” Johnson said. “They’re easy to rope and give us a chance to win. It’s really fun.”