Derrick Begay and Colter Todd lead the Pendleton Round-Up average at 10.6 seconds on two head with Round 2 still to finish, and the two men Begay is chasing for the last spot in the NFR heading standings are not in it.
Brenten Hall and Wyatt Cox, third in Round 1 for $4,838, no-timed in Round 2. Clint Summers and Jade Corkill, who no-timed in Round 1, were 5.2 in Round 2 and currently sit tied fifth through seventh — worth about $2,497 a man if it holds when the round closes. Until it does, Summers is the No. 15 header at $104,507, $651 over Begay, and Coy Rahlmann is No. 14 at $105,106. If the 5.2 holds, Summers passes Rahlmann and Rahlmann—11.2 on one head and 16.7 on two with Logan Medlin, outside the top nine — becomes the No. 15 header by $1,250 over a man leading the average.
Round 2
Round 2 is not complete, but as it stands: Brady and Riley Minor lead in 4.7, worth $7,179 if it holds. Tanner Tomlinson and Wesley Thorp are second in 4.8 — Thorp’s second round placing at a major in five days, after a first-round no-time took him out of the average. Cory Kidd and Carson Johnson are third with a 5.0, Ketch Kelton and Denton Dunning fourth with a 5.1, and Summers and Corkill, Buddy Hawkins and Denton Parish, and Brye Crites and Ross Ashford are tied fifth through seventh at 5.2. Jake Minor and Garrett Rogers are eighth in 5.4.
The average
Begay and Todd 10.6; Luke Brown and Hunter Koch 11.9; Cody Snow and Lane Mitchell 12.2; Kolton Schmidt and Paden Bray 12.6; Clay Smith and Coleby Payne 13.1; Nelson Wyatt and Jonathan Torres 13.2; Haven Meged and Cole Clemons and Cash Duty and Trent Vaught 13.3; Mike Grant and Trevor Schnaufer 14.3.
Riley Kittle and Trey Yates, fifth in Round 1 at 5.1, have not roped Round 2. They are at the New Mexico State Fair in Albuquerque Wednesday and return to Pendleton later in the week; a 7.5 or better puts them in the top eight on two.
The heading line
On paid money—including Puyallup, Lewiston, Fort Madison, Salt Lake City and Pendleton Round 1—the heading line runs: No. 11 Dustin Egusquiza $111,933; No. 12 Dawson Graham $107,278; No. 13 Kelton $106,785; No. 14 Rahlmann $105,106; No. 15 Summers $104,507; No. 16 Begay $103,856; No. 17 Hall $103,029; No. 18 Wyatt $98,548; No. 19 Riley Minor $91,284.
Three things about that list. Begay leads an average that Rahlmann, Summers, Kelton, Dawson Graham and Hall are all out of; a top-three average finish here should carry him past Summers and Rahlmann without either man roping again in Oregon. Wyatt is sixth on two head with Torres and, for the first time since Filer, has a check coming. And if Round 2 holds as it stands, Kelton’s fourth ($4,370) takes him to about $111,155 and No. 12, Summers’ share of fifth takes him past Rahlmann, and Riley Minor’s round win ($7,179) puts him at about $98,463—$85 behind Wyatt, a man nobody had in the conversation Monday.
The heeling line
On paid money: No. 13 JC Flake $111,933; No. 14 Payne $111,813; No. 15 Cox $111,653; No. 16 Medlin $106,072; No. 17 Corkill $104,507; No. 18 Vaught $103,326; No. 19 Thorp $101,074; No. 20 Torres $98,548.
Cox holds No. 15 by $5,581 over Medlin, and his Pendleton is over. If Round 2 holds, Thorp’s second ($6,243) takes him to about $107,317 and No. 16, Corkill’s share of fifth to about $107,004 and No. 17, and Medlin — 5.5 in Round 2, ninth in the round, out of the money by a tenth — drops to 18th without roping badly. The three heelers immediately above and below the line with average money coming are Payne at 13.1 on two, Vaught at 13.3 and Torres at 13.2: the man $158 above Cox and the two men $8,300 and $13,100 below him.
Mitchell, third on two head with Snow, is No. 11 at $114,693 and could be the biggest mover of the weekend. Dunning’s fourth in Round 2 would move him to about $120,010, past Jake Long to No. 9. Ashford’s share of fifth would put him at about $125,223, past TRJ’s projected heeling cut.
Above the line, and not safe
Crites’ share of fifth, if it holds, takes him to about $120,322, past Andrew Ward to No. 8 header and past the projected $119,000 heading cut; on paid money he is No. 9 at $117,825. Ward, at $119,217, is at the projection. Kelton, No. 13 at $106,785 paid, is $12,215 short of it — about $7,845 if his Round 2 fourth holds. Egusquiza and Flake, who no-timed Round 1 and were 11.2 in Round 2, leave Pendleton with nothing and sit at $111,933 each — Egusquiza $7,067 short of the heading projection, Flake $11,067 short of the $123,000 heeling projection, with Mandan and Stephenville left.
Yates, No. 8 heeler at $121,469, is $1,531 short and has the Governor’s Cup, Mandan and Stephenville. Snow, No. 10 header at $117,396, is third on two here and $1,604 short.
Who’s entered this week, and who isn’t
Three PRCA rodeos run alongside Pendleton — the New Mexico State Fair in Albuquerque, Sept. 16–20; the West Texas Fair in Abilene, Sept. 15–19; and the Lion’s Dixie Roundup in St. George, Utah, Sept. 17–19 — and the entry sheets split the bubble in half.
At Albuquerque: Snow and Mitchell, Wyatt and Torres, Medlin and Rahlmann, Yates and Kittle, and Begay and Todd on Wednesday; Ward and Long, Duty and Vaught, the Grahams and Brown and Koch on Thursday; Clay Smith and Payne on Friday; Tee McLeod and Jake Edwards and Jr. Dees and Will Woodfin on Sunday.
At Abilene: Wyatt and Torres, Rahlmann and Medlin, Snow and Mitchell, and Garrett Tonozzi — roping with Kyle Crick, not Yates — on Thursday; Duty and Vaught on Friday. At St. George: Clay Smith and Payne and Begay and Todd on Thursday.
Wyatt and Torres, Rahlmann and Medlin, and Snow and Mitchell are entered at both Albuquerque and Abilene. Payne is at Albuquerque and St. George. Not entered at any of the three: Summers and Corkill, Hall and Cox, Kelton and Dunning, Egusquiza and Flake, Crites and Ashford, and Tomlinson and Thorp. That list includes the No. 15 heeler in the world, the No. 15 header, and four of the six men chasing them.
Mandan: the whole bubble, one steer
Then everyone lands in the same place. The North Dakota Rough Rider Cup in Mandan, Sept. 18–20, takes the top 32 in the world standings plus four Badlands Circuit champions — 36 teams, one head, eight places, $11,000 to win — and every team named in this story is in the draw.
Friday, Sept. 18: Jhett Trenary and Tanner Braden, Shay Carroll and Landen Glenn, Coleman Proctor and Travis Graves, Kaleb Driggers and Junior Nogueira, Jaxon Hill and Logan Moore, Tyler Tryan and Nicky Northcott, Clay Tryan and Sid Sporer, Jake Smith and Douglas Rich, Korbin Rice and Cooper Freeman, Tucker McDaniel and Cash Hetzel, James Arviso and Levi Lord, Jr. Dees and Will Woodfin.
Saturday, Sept. 19: Andrew Ward and Jake Long, Cash Duty and Trent Vaught, Kolton Schmidt and Paden Bray, Tomlinson and Thorp, Begay and Todd, Egusquiza and Flake, Lightning Aguilera and Kaden Profili, Crites and Ashford, Clay Smith and Payne, McLeod and Edwards, Rahlmann and Medlin, Brown and Koch.
Sunday matinee, Sept. 20: Dawson and Dillon Graham, Kittle and Yates, Kavis Drake and Denim Ross, Erich Rogers and Cory Petska, Summers and Corkill, Hall and Cox, Kelton and Dunning, Snow and Mitchell, Riley and Brady Minor, Jon Peterson and Riley Wakefield, Wyatt and Torres, Cory Kidd and Carson Johnson.
Eight of the twelve teams in that Sunday matinee have a man inside or within $13,000 of a line. Both No. 15s — Summers and Cox — rope it, one team apart. So do Corkill, Kelton, Dunning, Mitchell, Snow, Wyatt, Torres, Yates, both Grahams and both Minors. One steer, in the last performance before Monday’s Playoff Series cutoff.
The sequencing matters. Corkill’s only remaining points rodeo is Mandan, and he ropes Sunday. Medlin, who holds the last Governor’s Cup heeling spot by 28.00 points over him, ropes Saturday. Medlin will know what he has banked before Corkill backs in the box; Corkill will know exactly what he needs.
And Begay’s week is four rodeos in five days: the Pendleton short round, Albuquerque on Wednesday, St. George on Thursday, Mandan on Saturday — for a man $651 outside the heading line who is leading the biggest average of the regular season.
Sioux Falls
Pendleton pays Playoff Series points on the average, and the Sept. 21 cutoff is Monday. Rahlmann and Medlin, holding the last roll-down spots on both sides as of the post-Puyallup standings — Rahlmann 25.43 out at No. 11 heading, Medlin in at No. 9 heeling by 28.00 over Corkill — are 16.7 on two head and unlikely to score at Pendleton, but they are entered at Albuquerque and Abilene before the cutoff. Snow and Mitchell, third on two, are 10th and 14th in points and entered at both as well. Wyatt and Torres, sixth on two, are 26th and 28th and not in the Governor’s Cup picture regardless.
What’s left
Pendleton’s short round and average, the three rodeos above, Mandan on Friday through Sunday, then the Governor’s Cup, Sept. 25–27, for those who qualify, and the Stephenville jackpot on Sept. 30, open to anyone with a card. TRJ’s working projection for the cut remains about $119,000 heading and $123,000 heeling, with both tracking to the top of their ranges.
The heading side has never had this many men this close: from Dawson Graham at $107,278 to Wyatt at $98,548, seven headers inside $8,800 for spots 12 through 18 on paid money, with one of them leading the average and five of them out of it—and Riley Minor, one round check from joining them.
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