Lightning Aguilera and Kaden Profili—the No. 15-ranked team entering the 2025 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo—were 4.0 at first out to win $36,667.95 a man and jump to eighth and seventh, respectively, in the PRCA World Standings with one down and nine to go.

Aguilera, 31, of Athens, Texas, now has $161,403 won on the year. Profili, 23, of Jacksonville, Texas, now has $160,203.

Aguilera’s Head Rope: The Natural

“He did a great job turning him, which made my job easy,” Profili, who made his first Finals in 2024, said. “I even got to take an extra swing or two. It feels good, but I’m not really looking at the standings. I’m just going to keep roping and see what happens. Let it play out.”

Aguilera had a rough first Finals in his prior appearance in 2022, and he attributed a lot of that struggle to not getting a very good start. So as the very first team out at the Finals this year, Aguilera let it all hang out.

“My goal is to catch the first one and get him turned,” Aguilera said. “When I watched the video, he looked hard to heel. I thought I’d try to hit him and open him up a little. He didn’t look very fun, but he was straight, which was good for me, and I knew he’d get going.”

“I had to take another swing because I didn’t feel like I got out of there fast enough,” Profili added. “I felt good though, so I took one more swing and got him heeled. He was hitting the ground fast, so the timing felt a bit funny, but it worked.”

Aguilera figured that—worst case scenario—he’d get the barrier taking that kind of roll at him. But he’d much rather have gotten the barrier than be late.

“That was the problem for me the first time here,” Aguilera said. “When the gates bang, my horse doesn’t want to go right away. He doesn’t lock up, but his first instinct is to score before going. I was late several times. My goal this time was to practice more and get some good goes. He felt good in the run-through and that was the goal.”

Aguilera was aboard his former horse of the year, Jess A Moose, by High O Corona out of Jess Tara by Mr Jess Perry.

Profili tapped Cole Curry for Liken It Tuff, the Mississippi heeler’s 2014 son of Woody Be Tuff out of the High Brow Cat daughter Catlike Kit.

“I’d watched Cole ride him for a while,” Profili said. “Then I saw Nick Rowland riding him at the amateurs when I was there and he always looked good. Cole ended up with him and wasn’t going to make it, so I called and asked if I could borrow him. He let me. I rode him at Fort Worth and he felt good, so I figured I’d take him, pay the mount money and see what happens. It’s worked out so far.”

Aguilera and Profili both qualified without their regular partners—Wyatt Cox and Brenten Hall, respectively—but the long-time friends made the call to rope together quickly when the chance arose.

“We grew up roping together,” Profili said. “When I was younger, I’d rope for him at slides and amateur rodeos. We’ve been roping together a long time, so it’s pretty cool to rope with one of my buddies here.”

The go-round saw five teams go out of the average early, with a 6.6 winning last hole for Cyle Denison and NFR first-timer Lane Mitchell.

Round 1 team roping results