Logan Olson capped his 2026 season with the Badlands Circuit year-end heading championship and back-to-back Circuit Finals average titles, teaming up with Matt Zancanella to win the average with 21.1 seconds on three head at the Badlands Circuit Finals in Minot, North Dakota, Oct. 9–11.

Olson and Zancanella, who had never entered a rodeo together before the Finals, won the first round in 4.2 seconds and finished second in Round 2 with a 5.4 before securing the average win with an 11.5-second final steer that included a leg.

“We made a good run the first one and had a good run the second one, and then all we had to do is come down,” Olson said. “The way it come down to it, we had to just catch the third one.”

The opening-round win put the team in position to watch the rest of the field before making their remaining runs, an advantage Olson said helped shape their approach throughout the weekend.

“It’s just a big advantage to me when you can see what the round’s doing — if it’s tough, if it’s open, and where the holes are,” Olson said. “Having a really good first run kind of sets up the whole weekend to me.”

For Zancanella, the opportunity to rope behind Olson brought back memories of his years roping with Travis Tryan in the early 2000s. Although the two had known each other for years, they had only practiced together before deciding to enter the Circuit Finals.

“I was really excited to just get a chance to rope with Logan,” Zancanella said. “We’d roped a little bit, but it was kind of the first time we ever put our name down at a rodeo and tried it.”

After spending several days practicing at Olson’s place ahead of the Finals, Zancanella felt confident in their ability to put together three solid runs.

“It felt like the old days, really, getting good spins made me feel like, man, I don’t heel too bad,” Zancanella said. “Going into it, I was really confident.”

Zancanella was aboard Ranger, his dun gelding purchased from the feed yards in the Texas Panhandle, whom he’s owned for five or six years.

The average victory marked Olson’s second consecutive title in Minot after winning the 2025 average with Jade Nelson in 15.6 seconds on three head.

Five Partners, Two Titles

While Olson and Zancanella found success in their first rodeo together, Olson’s road to the year-end title was anything but a one-man show.

Olson roped with five different partners throughout the regular season, beginning with Dustin Harris and Jade Nelson before joining Walt Woodard at the end of June. Woodard suffered a severe thumb injury shortly after the Fourth of July, leaving Olson entered through the remainder of the month without a partner.

With no way to fill those entries, Olson turned out his remaining July rodeos before returning in August with Kyle Crick, then finishing the regular season with Jared Bilby in September.

“I had phenomenal heelers this year,” Olson said. “Every one of them. I think every steer I turned, they caught.”

Despite the changes, Olson secured the year-end heading title, adding another Badlands Circuit championship to his résumé and earning his seventh trip to the national circuit finals.

“I usually don’t operate like that,” Olson said of having so many partners. “I’m usually a one-guy guy.”

Olson, who splits his time between Texas and South Dakota, typically heads north with his family after school gets out in May and stays through the Circuit Finals in October. With his wife and daughters accompanying him, the arrangement allows him to enter the rodeos and continue training horses.

That approach has also produced one of the circuit’s standout horses in DMO Onas Gotta Gun, or “Harley,” the 9-year-old sorrel mare Olson and his family raised.

Previously a barrel horse for Olson’s wife, Harley carried him through nearly the entire 2026 circuit season and earned Badlands Circuit Head Horse of the Year honors.

“When you get to be an old header, if you start winning again, it isn’t because you’re roping good — it’s because you got a good horse,” Olson said.

Olson, who won the Badlands Circuit Finals average aboard Harley in 2025, previously described her as an honest mare who scores good and lets him make the same run regardless of the situation.

“She scores great every time and just never really takes anything away from you,” Olson said in 2025. “She doesn’t get quick, and she’s really, really honest.”

With his priorities now centered on family and training horses rather than chasing a full-time rodeo schedule like he did when he made the NFR in 2005, Olson said the circuit system continues to give him a chance to compete at a high level without spending the entire year on the road.

“That’s my goal now, is to circuit rodeo and then make head horses,” Olson said. “Whenever you get to win, it’s always fun. That’s always our goal — try to win the circuit and do as best we can.”

Cash Hetzel Claims Year-End Heeling Title

While Olson navigated an ever-changing lineup of heelers, Cash Hetzel found success on the heel side year-end race with one partner throughout the entire season.

Hetzel, of Lemmon, South Dakota, claimed the 2026 Badlands Circuit year-end heeling title after spending the season roping with Tucker McDaniel.

The pair entered the Circuit Finals with momentum from a successful regular season and won the second round in Minot. They were sitting second in the average heading into the third round when a costly mistake took them out of the conversation.

“It cost my partner winning the year end and I still ended up winning the year end,” Hetzel said.

Despite the Circuit Finals finish, the year marked a successful first full season together for Hetzel and McDaniel, who had known each other and practiced together before deciding to make a run at the circuit rodeos.

“We talked last fall and decided to rope, and it went actually really good this year,” Hetzel said. “We had a pretty good run. We caught a lot of steers together.”

Their regular-season highlights included a win at Aberdeen, South Dakota, which helped them qualify for Mandan, and a go-round victory at Killdeer, North Dakota.

Hetzel’s championship earned him his third trip to the NFR Open in Colorado Springs, where he hopes his previous appearances will help ease some of the nerves that come with roping there.

“It’ll definitely be a little less nerve-wracking the third time than it was the first time,” Hetzel said.

Throughout the season and at the Circuit Finals, Hetzel relied on Cowboy, registered as CLG Cowboy Firewater, his 17-year-old gelding who earned the 2026 Badlands Circuit Heel Horse of the Year award.

Hetzel has owned Cowboy since the gelding was 5 or 6 years old and has ridden him for nearly his entire career.

“I started him in the heeling, and that’s pretty much the horse I’ve rode the whole time,” Hetzel said.

For Olson and Zancanella, the 2027 NFR Open also offers the possibility of advancing through the Cinch Playoff Series in Puyallup, Washington, and ultimately to the Governor’s Cup in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

“You still got avenues to go to big events, big stages,” Olson said.

Zancanella, whose hometown is Sioux Falls, is particularly motivated by the possibility of returning there to compete.

“To be able to come back to Sioux Falls and do it through the NFR Open would be pretty awesome,” Zancanella said.