There was rodeo action all across the country over the June 15–18, 2023, weekend, including World Champion team ropers Erich Rogers and Paul Eaves winning Utah’s Strawberry Days Rodeo in Pleasant Grove with a 4.0-second run. They also left North Platte, Nebraska, with $1,779 each after finishing fifth at the Buffalo Bill Rodeo with a 5.7 and are kicking off the current week by winning fourth at the Bob Tallman Invitational jackpot as the Reno Rodeo gets underway.

“Those aren’t just huge rodeos,” Eaves, 33, offered about the weekend’s events, “but just to get some money won and get some steers caught, anything like that’s good. That just builds your confidence to do good going into these bigger rodeos. To win some today (at the Bob Tallman Invitational) and those last two rodeos, that was good. That’s kind of what we were shooting for.”

At Pleasant Grove, Rogers and Eaves were last out in their performance and drew a medium-minus steer. After watching a couple good runs play out before them, they knew they needed to go for it.

“I don’t think we had much of a game plan,” said Eaves, originally from Lonedell, Missouri. “It’s a one-header, slower steers—we were just trying to make a pretty good run. They were making some good runs in front of us, so we tried to be pretty aggressive. That was kind of the game plan: just be as aggressive as we could because it was pretty fast.”

With fresher steers at North Platte, Pleasant Grove was set up for faster runs, and the times showed just that. 

“The steers were stronger, and some went pretty straight, some went right and, then, some went left; you kind of just had to play it by ear,” said Eaves, who was riding his 12-year-old gelding, Kid Rock. “Our steer came out and went pretty hard left. Real hard left, actually. Rogers did a good job hitting the barrier and getting it on him fast. And then steer was so far from me, I kind of had to take another swing just to get over there. It wasn’t near as smooth as our run at Pleasant Grove, but the conditions were different. So, it was all good.”

Rogers currently sits No. 31 in the PRCA world standings with $22,314.88 in earnings thus far, and Eaves sits 27^th on the heeling side with $22,666.20. Bolstered by their recent moves up the standings, Eaves feels they’re on the right track.

“Everybody wants to win $50,000 or $60,000 throughout the winter, which, we didn’t get that done, but I feel like it’s on track and going good. Just need to keep building on it, keep doing more and better from here.”

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Weekend Results

Strawberry Days Rodeo

Pleasant Grove, Utah

1. Erich Rogers/Paul Eaves, 4.0 seconds, $2,365 each; 2. Cody Snow/Jade Corkill, 4.4, $2,087; 3. (tie) Rhett Anderson/Zackery Lewis and Cole Thomas/Clay Green, 4.5, $1,669 each; 5. Brodi Jones/Jake Freeland, 4.8, $1,391; 6. Shay Dixon Carroll/Evan Arnold, 4.9, $1,252; 7. (tie) Kellan Johnson/Carson Johnson and Jake Smith/Douglas Rich, 5.0, $1,043 each; 9. Brian Winn/Matt Liston, 5.3, $835; 10. Tanner Pallesen/Kelton Morse, 6.0, $556.

Buffalo Bill Rodeo

North Platte, Nebraska

1. Clay Holz/Matt Zancanella, 5.1 seconds, $3,024 each; 2. J.C. Yeahquo/L.J. Yeahquo, 5.2, $2,668; 3. (tie) Jake Orman/Corey Hendrick and Clay Ullery/Jake Edwards, 5.3, $2,135 each; 5. Erich Rogers/Paul Eaves, 5.7, $1,779; 6. (tie) Jade Schmidt/Conner Herren, Kreece Thompson/Landen Glenn and Andrew Ward/Buddy Hawkins II, 5.8, $1,423 each; 9. Nick Becker/Kingston Chang, 6.1, $1,067; 10. Jase Staudt/Jhett Trenary, 6.4, $712.

Big Spring Cowboy Reunion & Rodeo

Big Spring, Texas

1. Clayton Eggers/Joshua Smitherman, 4.7 seconds, $2,832 each; 2. Kolby Krieger/Rich Skelton, 5.0, $2,463; 3. Coy Brittain/Colton Brittain, 5.1, $2,093; 4. Casey Tew/Colton Johnson, 5.2, $1,724; 5. (tie) Andrew Livingston/Zane Bruce and Michael Parker/Kaden Prince, 5.5, $1,170 each; 7. Jake Orman/Corey Hendrick, 5.8, $616; 8. Alex Muratori/Kody Gentry, 6.8, $246.

New Town Rodeo Days

New Town, North Dakota

1. (tie) Bubba Buckaloo/JR Gonzalez and Braden Pirrung/Jade Nelson, 5.0 seconds, $2,312 each; 3. Payton Pirrung/Mason Bice, 5.4, $1,879; 4. Jade Schmidt/Conner Herren, 5.5, $1,590; 5. Jr. Dees/Ross Ashford, 5.6, $1,445; 6. Clayton Van Aken/Cullen Teller, 6.0, $1,301; 7. Tucker Dale/Taylor Brower, 10.5, $1,156; 8. A.J. Zieman/Nathan Zieman, 12.1, $1,012; 9. Joe Wilson/Ed Shearer, 12.9, $867; 10. Jace Johnson/Cody Hill, 15.5, $578.

Evergreen Rodeo

Evergreen, Colorado

1. Garrett Busby/Jay McClain, 6.4 seconds, $1,520 each; 2. Brayden Fillmore/Josh Fillmore, 6.5, $1,258; 3. Zach Raley/Riley McKenzie, 8.0, $996; 4. Todd Drommond/Jason DeVore, 8.8, $734; 5. Eric Martin/Ryon Tittel, 11.3, $472; 6. Kyon Kreutzer/Clancey Kreutzer, 12.2, $262.

Atlantic Pro Rodeo

Atlantic, Iowa

1. Travis Klingson/Greg Schroeder, 7.3 seconds, $1,175 each; 2. Chance Andersen/Cody Carlson, 10.7, $881; 3. Ryan Von Ahn/Ranger Hill, 11.0, $588; 4. Joe Montgomery/Koltyn Moeller, 11.6, $294.

Mesquite Championship Rodeo

Mesquite, Texas

1. Cory Smothers/Colton Tate, 7.1 seconds, $728 each; 2. Andrew Livingston/Zane Bruce, 8.0, $546; 3. Stratton Lopez/Cody Egusquiza, 11.6, $364; 4. Cyle Denison/Boogie Ray, 13.9, $182.

Stanley Rodeo

Stanley, Wisconsin

1. Joe Jacobsen/Jimmy Jacobsen Jr., 7.8 seconds, $873 each; 2. Judd Grover/Clay Ellis, 9.1, $655; 3. Chad Gukenberger/Justin Gukenberger, 13.6, $437; no other qualified runs.

Cowtown Rodeo

Woodstown Pilesgrove, New Jersey

1. Chase Quinn/Riley Quinn, 6.4 seconds, $1,090 each; 2. Robbie Erck/Fred Brunelle, 7.1, $902; 3. Waylon Cameron/Scot Brown, 7.2, $714; 4. Chuck Smith/Kevin Brown, 7.8, $526; 5. Darren Morgan/Britt Bockius, 10.9, $338; 6. Keith Brown/Kelton Brown, 11.1, $188.

Colville Rodeo

Colville, Washington

1. Ty Schlecht/Sam Parker, 8.2 seconds, $1,175 each; 2. Chris Westphal/Chad Hunter, 8.9, $881; 3. Bobby Winn/Brett Hale, 9.1, $588; 4. Dale Benevides/Shane Crossley, 11.1, $294.

Stockton Lake PRCA Rodeo

Stockton, Missouri

1. Will Clark/Derrick Crawford, 4.9 seconds, $1,090 each; 2. Joe Beaver/Levi Pettigrew, 5.5, $902; 3. Cole Smith/Reed Boos, 5.7, $714; 4. (tie) Tye Casey/Marc Fenton and Cody Reed/Jace McDaniel, 5.8, $432 each; 6. Brent Mibb/Austin Rogers, 11.0, $188.

Mackay Rodeo

Mackay, Idaho

1. Travis Whitlow/Tyler Whitlow, 6.7 seconds, $1,295 each; 2. Jason Eiguren/Tyler Eiguren, 8.0, $1,072; 3. Kevin Peterson/Holden Garrison, 8.5, $848; 4. Pace Freed/Cole Wilson, 9.7, $625; 5. Jade Stoddard/Ben Folsom, 9.8, $402; 6. Jim Johnson/Cooper Bradshaw, 10.0, $223

Jackson County Pro Rodeo

Bellevue, Iowa

1. (tie) Cory Petska/Brent Miller and Ryan Von Ahn/Ranger Hill, 5.6 seconds, $1,183 each; 3. Mitchell Barney/J.W. Nelson, 5.8, $848; 4. Clay Bauer/Butch Levell, 5.9, $625; 5. Joe Beaver/Levi Pettigrew, 6.4, $402; 6. Cody Metsker/Austin Schneider, 6.9, $223

Days Of The Old West Rodeo

Delta, Utah

1. Quinn Kesler/Wyatt Thomas, 5.2 seconds, $1,772 each; 2. Hagen Peterson/Caleb Hendrix, 5.3, $1,466; 3. Pace Freed/Cole Wilson, 5.6, $1,161; 4. Coy Rahlmann/Jonathan Torres, 5.9, $855; 5. Jade Anderson/R.D. Abplanalp, 11.3, $550; 6. Ben Jordan/Scott Lauaki, 12.0, $306

Rodeo El Paso

El Paso, Texas

1. Tyler Waters/Seth Hall, 6.0 seconds, $1,210 each; 2. Bobby Baize/Calvin Taylor, 6.9, $1,001; 3. Lucas Screws/Lee Walker, 7.5, $792; 4. Corey Whinnery/Robert Murphy, 8.8, $584; 5. Bode Baize/Cody Garcia, 11.3, $375; 6. Tanner Bryson/Tye Reddell, 13.7, $209.

Belt PRCA Rodeo

Belt, Montana

1. Brady Tryan/Calgary Smith, 5.9 seconds, $1,431 each; 2. Cameron Irwin/Coley Nicholls, 6.0, $1,184; 3. Delon Parker/Ryan Zurcher, 6.2, $938; 4. Ty Larson/Dustin Ostrum, 7.6, $691; 5. Shawn Bird/Zachary Schweigert, 8.1, $444; 6. Ty Vaile/Kory Mytty, 8.9, $247

Earl Anderson Memorial Rodeo

Grover, Colorado

1. Jay Tittel/T.J. Watts, 5.3 seconds, $1,499 each; 2. Austin Crist/Jesse Jolly, 5.9, $1,241; 3. Dustin Witman/Tyler Lauridsen, 9.0, $982; 4. Wade Shoemaker/Brian Venn, 9.4, $724; 5. Jay Ellerman/Marcus Banister, 9.8, $465; 6. Jake Deveraux/Quincy Reynolds, 9.9, $259.

Top 15 Standings