No. 14 | $118,374

Kelton grew up on the family ranch outside Mayer, a long way from anywhere.

“We live out in the middle of nowhere on a five-mile dirt road, and the country on the ranch ranges from desert to mountains,” he told TRJ in 2024.

Unlike most ropers in a similar position, he had a blueprint. His dad, Chance, headed at three NFRs, tied steers at five National Finals Steer Ropings and made 12 straight trips to the Cinch Timed Event Championship. His grandpa, Willy, has always kept a few mares to raise horses for the ranch. Ketch spent his childhood at the Lazy E, chasing cattle out of the arena while his dad competed.

“Longtime fans, they know who he is,” his mom, Tammy Kelton, said in 2023. “He’s the kid that used to ride the paint pony and push cattle out.”

Asked about his heroes, Kelton never looked past the home place.

“My dad and my grandpa,” he said. “I’ve worked with them and looked up to them my whole life.”

He did everything—heading, heeling, tie-down roping, steer wrestling, reined cow horse. He won the National High School Finals Rodeo all-around in 2022 and the Jr. Ironman at the Lazy E in 2023 and 2024, breaking the aggregate record the first time. His grandpa wasn’t surprised by any of it.

“He’s nervous on the inside out there. But he’ll never show it on the outside. He’s got ice water in his veins. That’s bred into him, you can’t teach it,” Willy said.

The turning point came in February 2025, when Kelton skipped one last Jr. Ironman to take an invitation to the real thing at 19. He called Colter Todd, a longtime family friend who has made the NFR on both ends, to head and heel for him.

“I grew up with Colter, so he’s the first person I thought of,” Kelton said.

Then he led the Ironman from start to finish, won three of five rounds and never took a 60, becoming the youngest Cinch Timed Event champion ever and taking home $109,000.

“The only thing that I think could beat this is maybe the NFR,” Kelton said that night. “Just nothing else could beat this.”

Seven-time champion Trevor Brazile saw a kid who was built for it.

“He’s always forward motion. He never loses aggression. He’s a cowboy that’s done cowboy stuff long enough that it’s old hat to him.”

Most of that winning came on one horse that was never supposed to exist. About 16 years ago, Chance hauled the family’s home-raised mare, Buttermilk, to a ranch rodeo for the team tying, and days later she surprised them with a foal. Ketch’s sister, Kenzie Kelton, then 6, named the catch-colt Peaches. Chance trained her because nobody would take her off his hands.

Kenzie took the grade palomino to the high school finals in three events. When she started cosmetology school in 2024, Ketch borrowed the mare, and in one month that spring the siblings won $121,630 on her between the Jr. Ironman, the Hooey Jr. BFI and the Bob Feist Invitational.

“The coolest thing about her is you can take her to a World Series roping where it’s nod-and-ride, and then take her to the BFI and she’ll score like that,” Chance said.

Kenzie still owns her, and she’s turned down offers.

“Dad asked me how I’d ever replace her,” she said. “And he said, ‘We can make more.’” At 16, Peaches was the only mare in the field at the Puyallup semifinals in September.

The partnership goes back almost as far. Dunning, from Surprise, Arizona, has been roping with Kelton since they were kids.

“We’ve roped together a bunch. I used to go over to his house and rope when I was 8 or 10,” Dunning said. Kelton has always loved to heel, but he turned around for a reason. “I really like to heel, but I have a partner who can out-heel me right now, so I head for him,” he said in 2024. That summer, they won the high school finals team roping together.

Dunning spent 2025 rodeoing with Tyler Tryan while Kelton stayed in school at Cisco College, but when Kelton bought his card, the Arizona kids were back together. It clicked over Cowboy Christmas, when they won $29,248 a man and finished as the No. 2 team of the Fourth of July run.

“I think it helps because we know exactly what each other are going to do and how to do it,” Kelton said. “So it helps our success a lot.”

They won Idaho Falls in August, but the end of the summer was a grind.

“It was right there when there wasn’t a lot of rodeos to go to,” Kelton said. “You had one, maybe two a week, and I either broke the barrier or I missed.”

Two days after a no-time at Poway, California, they won San Bernardino in 4.1 seconds to climb back inside the line at No. 15. Then came Stephenville, where he didn’t need to be fast. He needed to catch.

“I have never been just the fastest header, I would say,” Kelton said. “But I’ve always been the catching type.”

Two years ago, asked about his cowboy hopes and dreams, Kelton said he hadn’t thought much about it yet. He has now. Back in July, with the hardest part of the season still ahead of him, he already knew what Las Vegas would mean.

“It’s your end goal. Get there, win a gold buckle. I think that would be really cool to first-year make it, especially for how hard it is these days to make it.”