As the 2024 ProRodeo season charges into its final stretch, teams on the outside are moving into that Top 15 realm.
Teams like Erich Rogers and Paul Eaves and Tanner Tomlinson and Patrick Smith have finally broken the glass on the Top 15 or are knocking loudly on the door from 16th.
Erich Rogers and Paul Eaves break into Top 15 with $12,344 week
Rogers and Eaves spent some time on the outside looking in this 2024 season, but thanks to their $12,344 week, Aug. 13-18, the pair of world champs are inside the Top 15 as of Aug. 20.
Rogers and Eaves sit No. 12 and 13 in the world standings with $88,583.46 and $89,182.47 won on the year, thanks to success at the Fallon County Fair & Rodeo in Baker, Montana, and Canby Rodeo in Oregon.
Rogers, 38, and Eaves, 34, won Baker with a 3.9-second run for $6,899 a man. They picked up $2,116 a piece for second in the first round in Canby with a 4.3 and $393 each for fifth in Round 2 with a 4.8. They were 9.1 on two steers to split second and third in the average for $2,936 a man.
Prior to the weekend, Rogers and Eaves were 16th and 19th in the world standings. For the majority of May and June, they were hanging out around the Top 25 zone, and it wasn’t until their strong NFR Open appearance and California Rodeo Salinas win that they broke into Top 15 territory at 15th and 16th. As August picked up, the two stayed in bubble territory and are now back on the inside.
Tanner Tomlinson and Patrick Smith climb with back-to-back five-figure weeks
Tomlinson and Smith have been on the uphill climb this August, now sitting 15th and 16th in the world standings. The 2021 NFR champs broke into Top 15 territory after another five-figure weekend.
Tomlinson, 24, and Smith, 44, pocketed $10,980 a man last week to push their season earnings to $83,131.16. They picked up $4,157 each out of the Caldwell Night Rodeo in Idaho for third in the first round, fifth in the finals and sixth in the average. They also pocketed $1,799 a man for third in Round 1 in Canby. They rounded out their week with a $4,984-a-man win at Idaho’s Gooding Pro Rodeo.
The week prior—Aug. 8-11—Tomlinson and Smith made noise raking in $14,064 a man to jump from 27th and 26th to 21st in the world.
Wyatt and Paden Bray continue to close in
Wyatt and Paden Bray added another $9,389 a man to their earnings. Wyatt is now an arm’s length from the Top 15 at No. 22 with $73,129.07, while big brother Paden is 26th on the heel side with $70,264.80.
The Bray brothers won Round 1 in Caldwell for $3,439 a man, followed by $1,640 each for third in the second round in Canby. They picked up $2,222 a piece for fourth in the Canby average and sealed the weekend with $2,088 each for eighth at the Moses Lake Round-Up Rodeo in Washington.
And how’s that bubble looking?
The bubble is tight with $10,002.09 separating 15th and 22nd on the head side and $10,257.39 separating 15th and 22nd on the heel side. In 2023, it took $98,811.73 on the head side and $97,727.43 on the heel side to make the NFR.
