Prolific second partners Dustin Egusquiza and Levi Lord roped five steers in a total time of 38.77 seconds to win the Open at the 48th Annual Windy Ryon Memorial Roping in Saginaw, Texas Memorial Day Weekend, splitting $11,100 at the historic roping.
Egusquiza also won the event in 2021 with his regular partner Travis Graves and won second with Lord that year. In 2022, Egusquiza and Lord sealed the deal from seventh call.
“That roping is pretty historic,” Lord, 26 of Stephenville, Texas, said. “It was a roping I watched growing up as a kid and always wanted to win it. That was pretty cool to get out there and be able to do it.”
In the star-studded short round, Egusquiza and Lord faced off against Clay Tryan, a three-time world champion, and Jake Long, a 10-time NFR qualifier, Kaleb Driggers and Junior Nogueira, the reigning world champs, as well as 2017 World Champion Erich Rogers and two-time World Champ and 20-time NFR heeler Walt Woodard.
Egusquiza and Lord took the No.1 spot after knocking down their short round steer in 6.3 seconds. Sixth, fifth, and fourth call back teams were eliminated by broken barriers and legs. A 7.48 second time earned Rogers and Woodard the No.2 spot, while Driggers and Nogueira got a barrier and Tryan and Long took a no-time.
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“The first run of the day we had a pretty medium steer, and I think we just kind of wanted to get it knocked down,” Lord said. “Our second one, we thought almost took us out of the roping. So, then we were a little bit behind, but with Dustin, you’re never too far out of it. We pressed a little bit on our third and fourth ones. Then seventh call back, we knew we were close enough to where if we made a good run, we would dang sure have a chance, ’cause it was so tight. We ended up drawing a really good steer in the short round. Dustin did a great job, so it dang sure gave us a chance to move up. I still didn’t think we’d win it. A couple of the teams at the top just had bad luck and I guess it just worked out for us.”
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“The set-up outside is pretty hard,” added Egusquiza, 26, Mineral Wells, Texas. “You got to see them out a way and the steers usually run. They were pretty good steers this year. They didn’t run quite as hard as I remember they used to run, but they were all a great even set of steers. Usually, the wind blows just crazy over there for some reason, and it’s right in your face all the time so it makes it even harder, but it was a pretty nice day. This year, the steers were good, the wind wasn’t that bad and it was pretty enjoyable.”
When Egusquiza won the roping in 2021, it was inside a nearby indoor arena because conditions were too bad to rope outdoors.
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“It’s always been a roping that I’ve wanted to win, you know, my whole life,” said Egusquiza, who rode his 8-year-old gelding Cajun for the win. “With the rain and roping indoors last year, it just wasn’t the same, so to get one outside this year was pretty cool, something I’ve been wanting to do for a while.”
“This past weekend was a big weekend of jackpotting at the Windy Ryon, the Danny Dietz and the Cody NesSmith Memorial,” summed up Lord, who rode his 7-year-old gelding, Pauly. “That was fun to go to all three of these ropings back-to-back days. It gives you a lot of chances to win money.”
2022 Windy Ryon Memorial Roping Results:
Open Results:
- Dustin Egusquiza & Levi Lord, 38.77 seconds on 5, $11,100
- Erich Rogers & Walt Woodard, 38.82 seconds, $8,300
- Clint Summers & Ross Ashford, 43.46 seconds, $5,500
- Coy Rahlmann & Douglas Rich, 44.51 seconds, $2,800
Ladies #11 Handicap Results:
- Cassidy Boggs & Rylie Smith, 43.72 seconds on 4, $4,600
- Courtney Ropers Myers & Emilee Moyer, 44.31 seconds, $3,420
- LaRaye Stipes & Debbie Fabrizio, 48.01 seconds, $2,280
- Sarah Angelone & Rylie Smith, 49.89 seconds, $1,140
#11 PickDraw Results:
- Chris Fleet & JD Shores, 32.61 seconds on 4, $9,900
- Jerry Canerdy & Brock Rouse, 36.60 seconds, $6,930
- Ryan Marrow & Cesar Ornelas, 37.14 seconds, $5,280
- Tanner Kilgor & Jim Baker, 38.59 seconds, $3,960
- Jason Brisbois & Shane Decker, 40.30 seconds, $2,970
- Jesse Headstream & Cody Egusquiza, 40.69 seconds, $2,310
- Jacob Beyer & Ryan Lipe, 44.54 seconds, $1,650
