For all Kaleb Driggers and Junior Nogueira won in this record-breaking $251,887 regular season—which broke their own money-won mark of $227,878 in 2022—tie-breakers cost them a couple of major rodeo titles this year.
The team that won back-to-back gold buckles in 2021-22 roped to win both the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo and Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo. They successfully navigated the sudden-death advancement systems at both, and could not be beat in the finals. But they were matched.
In the San Antonio finals, two teams—Lightning Aguilera and Wyatt Cox, and Driggers and Nogueira—were 3.8. But total money won at the rodeo broke the tie, and Lightning and Wyatt’s $24,218 a man, which included $5,504 for winning the Wildcard redemption round, beat Kaleb and Junior’s $22,017. So Lightning and Wyatt stole the show.
Fast forward to Cheyenne in July, where Driggers and Nogueira’s salty 7.6 in the finals was matched by Tyler Tryan and Nicky Northcott. It took two layers of fine print in the ground rules to break that tie. The first was total money won, but both teams won $12,600.
The second tie-breaker was fastest time in the semifinals. Tyler and Nicky’s 7.9 beat Kaleb and Junior’s 9.6 (which in real rodeo time was the smart move for advancement sake).
Driggers and Nogueira were denied the victory lap at The Dad. They also deadlocked with James Arviso and Levi Lord, both teams with 4.1-second runs in the finals, at the Washington State Fair Rodeo in Puyallup, Washington in September. But there were no tie-breakers in place, and the two teams were crowned co-champions. Interestingly, both teams emerged from different brackets with identical earnings of $14,858 a man in Puyallup.
What’s Driggers got to say about the two significant slights in San Antonio and Cheyenne?
“I should have done better,” he said matter-of-factly, with the mindset of a champion all our kids can admire. “I don’t want to throw shade on other people’s wins. I want them to enjoy their win. I should have been faster at both places, bottom line. Congratulations to those other guys. They roped great.”