The 19-year-old Arizona Rookie and two-time JR Ironman winner Ketch Kelton leads the 2025 edition of the Cinch Timed Event Championship after Round 1 with a 50.0 on five head, worth $3,000.
Kelton has won over $176,000 just in Global Handicaps competition in the last year, much of that on the same red dirt of the Lazy E Arena that he made his mark on Feb. 27 in Round 1.
“I’m just trying to stay focused,” Kelton, of Mayer, Arizona, said. “And to not think about all of that, and just go from roping to roping and just have fun.”
Kelton and his staple, grade mare Peaches was 9.0 in the heading with the help of NFR switchender Colter Todd, and he followed it up in the tie-down roping with a 13.7-second run. Todd headed for Kelton in the heeling, and they stopped the clock in an round-best 6.7. Kelton got his dogging steer down in 4.7, then finished Thursday night with a 15.9—the second fastest busting time of the round. Kelton leads his region in the busting, and his dad, Chance, is a three-time NFR team roper who’s also roped at five National Finals of Steer Roping.
“I started busting at 13 or 14,” Kelton said of the event that typically intimidates CTEC rookies. “My dad always had a busting horse around, so he’d let me trip here and there.”
Kelton, a freshman at Cisco College, spends Monday through Wednesday in school for welding, but he comes home and ropes all afternoon and evening when he’s done.
“I do all of the events in the practice pen,” Kelton said. “We go ’til dark, and most of it’s riding all the horses, training on them. Spending time on the horses makes everything better, because you don’t have to fight with your horse. They’re on your side.”
Kelton’s game plan going into the Timed Event was to just not take a 60, so he’s staying the course.
“I think that’s the thing just do as good as I can with what I draw and go from there,” Kelton said.
More on Ketch Kelton:
| Contestant Name | Average After Round 1 | Payout | |
| 1 | KETCH KELTON | 50.0 | $3,000 |
| 2 | CODY DOESCHER | 53.1 | $2,000 |
| 3 | STETSON JORGENSEN | 68.3 | $2,000 |
| 4 | PAUL D. TIERNEY | 74.2 | |
| 5 | K.C. JONES | 75.6 | |
| 6 | KYLE LOCKETT | 75.7 | |
| 7 | DYLAN HANCOCK | 77.4 | |
| 8 | NELSON WYATT | 80.8 | |
| 9 | BLANE COX | 84.0 | |
| 10 | COLBY LOVELL | 86.8 | |
| 11 | BRUSHTON MINTON | 87.3 | |
| 12 | BILLY GOOD | 88.5 | |
| 13 | CLAYTON HASS | 90.7 | |
| 14 | JOHN DOUCH | 99.2 | |
| 15 | RILEY WAKEFIELD | 100.0 | |
| 16 | SETH HALL | 101.5 | |
| 17 | KOLTON SCHMIDT | 109.9 | |
| 18 | ERICH ROGERS | 110.3 | |
| 19 | THOMAS SMITH | 112.8 | |
| 20 | RUSSELL CARDOZA | 118.2 | |
| 21 | MARCUS THERIOT | 118.7 | |
| 22 | JESS TIERNEY | 120.8 | |
| 23 | JOJO LEMOND | 136.3 | |
| 24 | TYLER PEARSON | 142.3 | |
| 25 | CLAY SMITH | 152.1 |
