Bronc Evans broke WCJR history, taking home five titles during the 2024 event at the Lazy E Arena in Guthrie, Oklahoma.
Evans, just 14, took home the world title in the Youth Heading, Heeling and All-Around and won the event in the Youth Heading and Men’s All-Around Saturday, July 27. The Fairview, Missouri, cowboy was also the overall high-money earner of the Youth division, pocketing $9,300.
“I tried to kind of pay attention all week long to what the other kids were doing, but also not pay too close attention and get worked up over it,” Evans admitted. “I had a pretty good idea, but it was very exciting to hear them tell me, not just in my head. I was like, ‘This is actually happening.'”
Evans entered the WCJR leading the Youth heading, second in the Youth heeling and second in the Youth men’s all-around. His position in the standings meant that Evans and his partners—heeler Cross Ringelstein and header Owen Gillespie—started the week in the Qualifying Rounds.
In the first round, Evans and Ringelstein won fourth with an 8.43 for $100 a man., Then, Gillespie and Evans won the second round with a 6.66 for $400 each.
Next, a 7.00 in the Semifinals gave Gillespie and Evans a second-place finish and $400 a man to advance to the Championship Round. Because he entered the WCJR No. 1 in the heading, Evans was also seeded into the Championship Round, which came in handy as he and Ringelstein were a no-time in the Semifinals.
“Our game plan really never changed—we tried to stick with it—but in the [Championship Round], it did change a little bit,” Evans explained. “With me and Cross being last, we got to know what we had to do. We had full mindset of going about 4.0 because we thought it was just going to be a knife fight. And it was still pretty tough, I think 6.8 won second, but we had a little bit of time to kind of back off a little of what we thought we were going to have to do.”
Evans and Ringelstein topped the field in the Championship Round with a 6.57 to seal the deal on Evans’ world title. He also won fourth heeling for Gillespie to lock in his heeling world championship and the all-around. Between the clean-slate nature of the Championship Round and realizing he accomplished his goal, that night is one of Evans’ new favorite memories.
“I really did like that, how they just clean slate everything,” Evans said. “Then when we roped our cow, honestly, I didn’t know what the other kids were; I thought they were 6.5, and so when we were 6.5, I was nervous. But then Cross, I turn around and he’s shooting at our cow, giving him the finger guns. I was like, ‘Well, he must have seen something I didn’t.’ And then they called it out and I was like, ‘Yes!’ Riding out of the arena, that was probably my best memory.”
