Texas’ Cooper Hatley and Brazil’s Junior Nogueira roped four steers in 27.2 seconds to win $50,000 at the #15 Shoot-Out at the United States Team Roping Championship’s Cinch National Finals of Team Roping.
Hatley also placed fourth with Louisiana’s Jonathan Torres with a time of 28.25 seconds on four head, worth an additional $22,400.
“I knew I had Junior behind me, so I wasn’t worried about anything,” Hatley, 19, said. “I met him through Kaleb Driggers. He’s the best in the world, so I wanted to rope with him.”
Hatley rode Sweetie, a 12-year-old unregistered mare that came from his uncle Casey Hatley, while Nogueira rode Hali, the 10-year-old grey mare he got from Kollin VonAhn in 2016.
“I’m really blessed with both of the horses I have,” Nogueira said. “I am riding Green Card in the Open, so I decided to ride her here. She’s easy to catch on and she’s free. That steer hit a little bit funky and I needed to take one more, and she let me do it. I missed my start and missed my haze, but I got out of the way and let him stay where he needed. I wanted to just place in the roping. They said we were 6 something and I said ‘OH YEAH!'”
