Levi Lord has joined his header, six-time NFR qualifier Dustin Egusquiza, atop the 2024 PRCA world standings as of June 17.
Lord, who has three NFR qualifications under his belt, is the No. 1 heeler in the world with $81,860.90 won on the year thus far. With the summer run just getting started, the 28-year-old is grateful to be where he is at.
“This is a real blessing to be not even to Reno yet and have over $80,000 won,” Lord said. “Just can’t complain about that. Anybody would just dream of having that start, so it’s been good. It just seems like we’ve been doing pretty good everywhere, and we’re doing good in the [Texas] circuit, so it’s just been working good for us. I’m just excited to be out here and get going with the summer rodeos and try to keep it going.”
For your information: Prior to the Reno Rodeo in 2023, the No. 1 team in the world standings, Rhen Richard and Jeremy Buhler, had $87,617.59 won on the year. Egusquiza and Lord were fourth and third in the world with $53,728.52.
Thanks, North Platte
The jump comes after Egusquiza and Lord picked up $3,149 a man for winning the Buffalo Bill Rodeo in North Platte, Nebraska, June 12-15, with a 4.5-second run. North Platte marked another rainy, muddy rodeo Egusquiza and Lord conquered. They drew the steer another team was leading the rodeo on after the slack, making it a little easier to look past the rain.
“He kind of beat us out of there a little bit,” Lord explained. “There’s a long box, pretty decently long score, and Dustin said he felt a little bit behind, and I kind of felt it too. I was thinking I was going to need to heel him fast, so I got up there, and [Dustin] did what he does—he headed in from a long ways away. When it hit his head, [the steer] squared up really fast, and it just came together fast. It was down the arena a little farther than we go sometimes, but it still ended up being fairly fast.”
Moving into the No. 1 position at the start of the summer gives Lord both confidence and motivation to stay at the top.
“When you see your name up there, you know you’ve been doing something right,” Lord explained. “We’ve been catching a lot of steers, so you do get confidence from that, but, also, I don’t want to get complacent at all. If you’re not in first, it seems like there’s something to chase, so once you get to first, then we’re just trying to get to a certain number. If we’re in first or fifth, we’re still trying to get to a number of money won going into the Finals. Hopefully that’ll keep us pushing on the gas.”
Keeping momentum
While Egusquiza and Lord have already had a remarkable 2024—taking the win at the Sandhills Stock Show & Rodeo (Odessa), National Western Stock Show and Rodeo (Denver), Rodeo Austin and Guymon Pioneer Days Rodeo—taking control of the world standings hasn’t come without a fight. The team has been neck and neck with RodeoHouston winners J.C. Yeahquo and Buddy Hawkins since they picked up the $50,000 win in the spring. Yeahquo and Hawkins are currently No. 2 with $76,592.33 and $81,158.39 won on the year.
READ: Dustin Egusquiza and Levi Lord Secure 2nd Winter Rodeo Title in 2024 with Denver Win
“It definitely takes a while to make that gap up, so I think we’ve done a good job getting there as fast as we can,” Lord said. “It’s been close, and those guys are roping really good, and not just them—everybody towards the top. There’s so much money to be won that somebody could come from nowhere and win $20,000 in one week. I told somebody the other day, even though we’ve been doing so good, you have to keep catching or we’ll get passed up pretty fast out here.”
With a lot more rodeoing to go on the 2024 season, Lord has his sights set on entering the NFR in the No. 1 position.
