Top 5 Lay of the Land
The Texas ropers are in the lead, but the Top 5 shows a widespread start to the USTRC’s 2024 Cinch Ladies season.
In the heading, Texan Lucy Lawson kicked things off at May’s Oklahoma Classic, where she snapped up 26 points across three different divisions to take the lead.
Behind her, New Mexico’s Aubrey Trujillo owned the #7 at May’s Red Rock Classic—she won the top two holes to take home a total of 19 points from the roping.
Things get tight in a 15-point tie for the No. 3 heading position, occupied by Colorado’s Jayla Reed and Iowa’s Shawnee Murphy. Reed also hit the Oklahoma Classic and earned 8 and 7 points in her events. Murphy made her way to the Missouri Classic and came up with 15 after earning 7, 6 and 2 points.
Just a point shy of the tie, Missouri’s Parker Penny headed for 14 points, worth the No. 5 spot, when she won 9 and 5 points, also at May’s Missouri Classic.
The heeling standings reveal only two ropers in the race this early, and that start may prove extremely valuable as more competitors qualify into the standings.
The early lead was captured by Texan Audrey Snyder when she earned a notable 14 points at the West Texas Championships. That makes for a 9-point spread between her and the No. 2 heeler, Virginia’s Rylie Heath.
Heath captured sixth place and 5 points at the Virginia Championships in the #8.5.
The Leaders
Heading
Dalhart, Texas’ Lucy Lawson, 28, is on a heater.
The 2023 calendar year is proving to be a lucrative one for the 4.5 header—who occasionally competes on the heels, too—so we may get to see some baddie roping action as the Cinch Ladies season progresses through the USTRC’s Cinch National Finals of Team Roping, scheduled to return to Fort Worth, Texas, April 21–28, 2024.
Lawson lit a match on her 2023–2024 Cinch Ladies season at the Oklahoma Classic in Goodwell when, in the #11.5, she took second place for 9 points and third place for 8 points. She then put a productive bow on her efforts with a second, second-place finish for 9 points in the #8.5.
With 26 points total at the end of June, Lawson is enjoying a 7-point lead to start her Cinch Ladies season.
Heeling
Out of Odessa, fellow Texas roper Audrey Snyder went to work on the heeling side of the standings.
The 4 switchender (Snyder also won money heading at the event) celebrated her Sweet 16 on the heels of the early June event, where she took fourth place and 7 points each in the #8.5 roping and the #7 roping.
With her so-far season total of 14 points to kick off the year, Snyder gets an effective, 9-point jump on the rest of the pack.
Though it doesn’t translate into points on the USTRC Cinch Ladies standings, it’s worth noting that Snyder also won the short-go fast times in both divisions, too, which suggests Snyder delivers under pressure—another indicator of a need-to-watch race and the season rolls on.
(She can also be spied in the No. 10 position in the USTRC Resistol Jr. standings this month.) TRJ
Current USTRC or Key Card/Key Card Max membership is required to participate in the Cinch Ladies Program. Earned points begin counting at time of membership purchase thru the NFTR’s last shootout event. The season begins the Monday after the last USTRC Cinch NFTR event and ends the last day of the next USTRC Cinch NFTR event.
Ropers must enter at least one Shootout division in the USTRC NFTR to be eligible. The award will be announced at the end of the USTRC Cinch National Finals of Team Roping event.
The points breakdowns are as follows: Starting with At Home Challenge Events, ropers will earn 10 points if they win the Challenge. No other points will be awarded. At Signature Events, points will be awarded to those winning an aggregate check. It starts at First Place with 10 points, Second = 9 points, and so on as far down as the ropings are paid. During the Cinch NFTR, the placing points are simply doubled. First Place will be 20, second = 18, and so on.
