“We were probably six or seven when we met each other,” Worley said. “I can tell what he’s going to do every time and how he’s going to handle my steers. It’s pretty predictable.”

“We were just trying to do what we had to do,” the header, Hodge, said. “We weren’t trying to do anything
too fast.”

They also benefited from the draw. Both their first and second round runs would be on Wednesday, all the steers had run by that point in the rodeo, so they were able to watch video on the steers they drew.

In the first round, they stopped the clock in 7.454 seconds, good enough for ninth.

Then the draw position became less enviable. It rained all day Wednesday, and the arena was muddy—described by some as a foot deep.

“It was pretty muddy that night and we drew another good steer,” Hodge said. “There was probably a foot of mud. We got through it there.”

They roped their steer in 8.513 seconds, which again placed them ninth.

“We were high call back,” Hodge said of the final round. “We were leading by almost three seconds, so we knew all we needed to do was go catch one.”

They stopped the clock in 8.184 seconds, bringing their total time on three to 24.151 seconds—nearly one second ahead of the competition.

“It’s cool,” Worley said. “To win it with my good friend means a lot.”

All the newly crowned national champions graduating from high school were given free PRCA permits, and Hodge plans to use his immediately.

The all-around and tie-down roping titles went to Georgia cowboy Dalton Richards, who roped three calves in 27.575 seconds and earned an even 1,000 points in the all-around contest, also finishing 11th in the team roping.

Hayden Segelke won the goat tying at the NHSRA, as well as the IFYR.