The No. 15 heeler in the world changed twice in six days without either man roping a steer that mattered, a No. 8 heeler was passed by a man who won Fort Madison on Saturday, and the PRCA regular season now ends with an open-entry jackpot in Stephenville, Texas, that could pay a $4,000 round four times over.
Here is where the NFR team roping race stands with 17 days left.
Editor’s note: All numbers are unofficial based on our hard-sought projections. We reserve the right to be wrong and to update frequently when facts (and rodeo counts) change. We’ll update the TRJ ProRodeo Standings Hub first thing Monday morning (September 14).
The Lines
Heading: Clint Summers is No. 15 at $104,507. Nelson Wyatt is No. 16 at $98,548, $5,959 back. Brenten Hall, at $98,191 after a share of third at Lewiston, is $357 behind Wyatt.
Heeling: Wyatt Cox is No. 15 at $106,815. Logan Medlin is No. 16 at $106,072, $743 back. Jade Corkill is No. 17 at $104,507, Trent Vaught No. 18 at $103,326, Wesley Thorp No. 19 at $101,074, Jonathan Torres No. 20 at $98,548. Five men inside $8,300.
Both lines have moved sharply. On Aug. 31 the heading line was $97,333 and the heeling line $101,828. On Sept. 8, after Ellensburg, they were $101,757 and $104,755. Since then, Puyallup, Lewiston and Fort Madison have added another $2,750 and $2,060. Last year’s lines closed at $114,735.75 heading and $111,672.10 heeling; the heeling line is now running roughly $11,000 ahead of the same date in 2025.
What Puyallup Did
Kaleb Driggers and Junior Nogueira and James Arviso and Levi Lord split first and second in the final for $12,225 a man. Luke Brown and Hunter Koch were third for $7,200; Garrett Tonozzi and Trey Yates fourth for $3,850. All four teams qualified for the Governor’s Cup in Sioux Falls, S.D., Sept. 25–27, where the team roping purse is $166,667 a side.
Driggers and Nogueira left Puyallup at $203,924 each with Lewiston added. Arviso moved to No. 4 header at $140,165; Lord to No. 4 heeler at $141,350. Brown is at $88,350 and Koch at $78,648 — outside the NFR conversation, but with a Sioux Falls entry that changes the arithmetic for both.
For the bubble, Puyallup paid in the rounds and then stopped. Dawson and Dillon Graham won Set 1 Round 1 for $3,510 and did not advance. Cody Snow and Lane Mitchell were second in Set 1 Round 2; Dustin Egusquiza and JC Flake second in Set 2 Round 1; Ketch Kelton and Denton Dunning third in Round 1 and fourth in Round 2; Summers and Corkill fourth in Set 1 Round 2. Those four teams reached the semifinal, took $1,600 apiece for finishing fifth through eighth, and went home. Andrew Ward and Jake Long were second in Set 2 Round 2 for $2,633 and did not advance. Coy Rahlmann and Medlin, Jr. Dees and Coleby Payne, Cash Duty and Vaught and Tanner Tomlinson and Thorp did not make a semifinal; Tomlinson and Thorp won Set 2 Round 2 in 3.3 seconds for $3,510 after missing in the matinee.
The No. 15 heeler in the world changed twice in six days without either man roping a steer that mattered.
Yates was the one bubble heeler who converted. He and Tonozzi were unplaced in both rounds of Set 2, made the semifinal third at 14.4 on two head, won the semifinal in 5.3 and took fourth in the final. With his Fort Madison win Saturday with Riley Kittle — $4,007 a man — he is No. 9 in the world at $118,036, up from No. 13 at $110,179 on Friday morning.
What Lewiston Did
Duty and Vaught split first with Driggers and Nogueira in 4.0 for $4,331 a man—the largest check any heeler on the bubble took out of the weekend. Hall and Cox, Clay Smith and Payne and Jake Smith and Douglas Rich split third for $3,197. Tomlinson and Thorp were sixth for $2,475; Lightning Aguilera and Kaden Profili and the Grahams split seventh for $2,011.
Cox’s $3,197 is what moved him past Medlin, who took $1,316.25 out of Puyallup’s first round and nothing after. Payne’s puts him at $111,813, $120 behind Flake. Rich’s takes him to $121,984 and, for the first time in two weeks, out of the range where a No. 7 heeler has to think about the cut. Dawson Graham’s $2,011 moves him to No. 12 at $107,278, $493 ahead of Kelton.
The Tiers
Heading, above the line: Ward $119,217, Brye Crites $117,825, Snow $115,044 (about $117,899 if his second at Salt Lake City holds at last year’s ladder), Egusquiza $111,933, Dawson Graham $107,278, Kelton $106,785, Rahlmann $105,106, Summers $104,507. Four men inside $2,800 for spots 12 through 15.
Heeling, above the line: Long $119,217, Yates $118,036, Dunning $115,640, Dillon Graham $114,573, Mitchell $112,341 (about $115,196 with Salt Lake), Flake $111,933, Payne $111,813, Cox $106,815. Seven men between No. 8 and No. 14 inside $7,500.
Where the Cut Is Headed
TRJ’s working projection is that the lines finish near $119,000 heading and $123,000 heeling, with ranges of $116,000–122,000 and $120,000–126,000. The method: on Sept. 5, 2025, the No. 15 heeler sat at roughly $94,900. The line closed at $111,672 — about $16,700 of movement in 25 days, of which roughly $13,700 came after the Puyallup set rounds. Applied to this year’s Sept. 12 line, that gives about $119,800. The Stephenville jackpot on Sept. 30 — $75,000 added, open entry, an estimated four rounds at roughly $4,000 and an average near $7,500 to win — is new money that last year’s growth cannot account for; adding one round check to the line puts it near $123,000. A second method, adding this year’s $11,000 same-date lead to last year’s close plus Stephenville, lands near $125,000.
The heeling line is projected higher than the heading line for the first time in recent memory because the heeling standings from No. 5 to No. 19 are packed inside about $21,000 and nearly everyone in that pack is entered at Mandan and Stephenville. More men within reach of the line means more of them pass it.
What That Means by Roper
Against a $123,000 heeling cut: Long needs about $3,800 and Yates about $5,000; Yates has the Governor’s Cup, Mandan and Stephenville, Long has the last two. Dunning and Dillon Graham need $7,400–8,400. Mitchell needs about $7,800 with Salt Lake. Flake and Payne need about $11,000. Cox, Medlin and Corkill — the line — need $16,000–18,500. Vaught needs about $19,700, Thorp about $21,900, Torres about $24,500.
Against a $119,000 heading cut: Ward is there. Crites and Snow need $1,000–4,000 and are not roping this week. Egusquiza needs about $7,000. Dawson Graham, Kelton, Rahlmann and Summers need $11,700–14,500. Wyatt needs about $20,500, Hall about $20,800.
Thorp’s case is worth stating plainly. A three-time world champion at No. 19, roping for the No. 6 header in the world, who won Ellensburg two Mondays ago and a Puyallup round on Saturday: he is $5,741 from the line and roughly $22,000 from where it will finish. Mandan pays $11,000 to win on one head. A Stephenville sweep is worth about $23,500. Both are on his calendar. So is Tomlinson’s Playoff Series standing.
What’s Left
Major rodeos left on the books: Pendleton Round-Up, Sept. 16–19. North Dakota Rough Rider Cup, Mandan, Sept. 18–20—one head, $11,000 to win, eight places, top 32 in the world plus four Badlands Circuit champions; every roper named above is in the field. Governor’s Cup, Sioux Falls, Sept. 25–27—the four Puyallup finalists plus the top eight in Playoff Series points at the Sept. 21 cutoff. The final-weekend rodeos. And Stephenville on Sept. 30, the last day of the season, open to anyone with a card.
Last year the heading cut was decided by $850 with a $2,129 check at Mona, Utah, on the final day. This year the final day pays $4,000 per man per round four times.