For Brye Crites and Ross Ashford, the momentum keeps building in 2026 after winning $14,076 a man for the Rodeo Corpus Christi title May 9.
Crites and Ashford are sitting pretty heading into the summer run, both sixth in the PRCA world standings with $39,873.39 and $44,775.01 respectively.
“It’s great,” Crites, 32, said. “That’s a great weekend. We needed it at this time of year. We’re making some good runs. It feels good to be catching and putting some runs together before we leave for the summer.”
For both Crites and Ashford, this start to the season has a lot riding on it. After heading for Buddy Hawkins as a Resistol Rookie in 2018, Crites switched to the heel side and made his first NFR in 2022. After roping both ends in 2023, Crites returned to heading full-time. Crites now has the chance to become one of few NFR switchenders, while Ashford is also chasing his return to the Thomas & Mack after qualifying for the NFR in 2021. Crites considers this best start of his career on the head side and one his best overall.
“Really, this is about the best start,” Crites admitted. “The year I made the Finals heeling, I won about $40,000 in the winter. But this is dang sure of the best start I’ve ever had heading. It’s a good feeling. We won those two big rodeos. We won Tucson and we won Corpus. It’s wild. We was talking about it, and it’s wild that I did a bad job at the three biggest rodeos of the winter at Fort Worth, San Antonio and Houston, but I still feel super, super blessed to have what I got won with doing bad at those rodeos.”
Riding the waves in Corpus Christi
Crites and Ashford got off to a fast start in the Sparkling City by the Sea, splitting second in Round 1 with a 3.7-second run for $4,631 apiece.
“The first round we were early,” Crites explained. “We were seventh or eighth out of the rodeo. It’s a little tight building and I figured it was going to be fast, so we just let our hair down and went at the first one.”
After several teams struggled in the short round, Crites and Ashford focused on staying clean. They split the round with a 4.9 for $808 a man to clinch the average title with an 8.6 on two head for another $8,637 apiece.
“Being at the end of the short round, the short round fell all the way apart,” Crites said. “I was just trying to not miss. We knew a clean run pretty much guaranteed us second, so just tried to just get him caught without any penalties. We drew amazing. Our short round cow was the best steer there. He was amazing.”
The Corpus Christi win comes on top of horsepower complications for Crites this spring. He borrowed Tinas Poco Effort, aka “Tina,” from fellow Oklahoman Clint Peverley after both of his horses were sidelined with injuries.
“My good horses are all hurt right now, and he was nice enough to offer me her to get me through until I got my horses put back together,” Crites said. “My good horse got hurt, and the last place I got to ride him was the BFI. Then my second-string horse got hurt that same week. It’s been a month or so kind of piecing stuff together. He did me a big solid letting me take that horse. That’s a really good horse.”
Crites and Ashford are a new team in 2026, teaming up after they both found themselves searching for new partners during the winter run. And while their partnership is relatively fresh, they do have some history together.
“Just this winter, both of us lost our partners, and I just hollered at him and we decided to team up,” Crites said. “When I was still heeling, we went on one trip and I headed for him. The year he made the Finals, I headed for him in Arizona at all the ropings out there.”
With summer rodeos approaching, Crites believes the partnership is only beginning to hit its stride.
“I think our run is going to be good outside where he heels them all pretty much,” Crites said with a laugh. “And I’m just going to try to do my job better this year and just get out of the barrier and turn them all. I think we’re fast enough, I just got to turn them for him.”