Andrew Ward and Kollin VonAhn—two longtime best friends who’ve never ProRodeoed together until this year—are now heading to their first National Finals Rodeo as a team after pulling off nearly miraculous come-from-behind victory worth $30,000 a man at the Cinch Governor’s Cup in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Ward, 34, of Edmond, Oklahoma, spun a steer in 4.0 in the Round of 8 then came back and spun one for the two-time World Champ VonAhn in 3.9 to win the clean-slate Round of 4, solidifying the NFR qualification for the team of past NFR average champs.

VonAhn entered the final day of Sioux Falls 21st in the PRCA world standings with $95,382 won, with the ProRodeo season ending Sept. 30.

“We just said we need to try to win this,” Ward said. “Neither one of us really knew where we were at. I heard Joe (Beaver) say maybe we needed to win third. Kollin kind of talked me off of just, ‘Hey, let’s go catch one.’ He is like, ‘No.’ He said, ‘We can win this. Let’s just go at ’em.’ So then for me, it makes it a lot more peaceful when you don’t think. I’m just trying to get a great roll and head ’em as fast as I can. And it’s really easier roping up by the chutes than it is when you go out there in the arena. And I don’t believe that those heel shots are lucky, and this guy’s confidence to finish rodeos and the last month we didn’t rodeo our wheels off. He’s like, ‘We’ll get in. We’re going to do fine. We’re just going to believe in it, catch and do our job and we’ll be out there.’ And it’s the great mindset that wins at big nights like tonight, I think.”

VonAhn did have faith—enough faith in fact to whip it down there when Ward got it on them dirty fast—and maybe it was faith that brought two feet into his loop in both the Round of 8 and Round of 4 in Sioux Falls Sept. 28.

“Both shots were borderline,” VonAhn admitted. “I’m just lucky I was a little too far ahead of the steer. I picked my bottom stranded up off the ground, then tried to set it back down on the ground and the last one, the steer wanted to hop high enough, he put himself right back in it. I needed them both to work and Andrew did a great job. He obviously turned ’em fast enough to win and so there really isn’t much more thinking about it. Put it down there and what happens, happens.”

With stout horsepower in Ward’s Cole E Man and VonAhn’s Juicy, they had all the right pieces to make the down-to-the-wire puzzle come together.

“I’m a pretty lucky guy,” VonAhn said. “I’ve got a great family, my mom and dad, my brothers, they’re all great people and it’s been one of them things my whole life. I’ve got a great wife, great kid. Everything for me is perfect, anyways. And then it comes time to making the Finals. And if I didn’t make it, it’s not ever lack of effort. I mean we worked hard at it. There’s literally nothing else I think I can do anyways. And so I just believe when I get in them situations, it’s not about sometimes doing more and worrying about it. I think God kind of scripts us a plan, and that’s the way it works out.”

Governor’s Cup Team Roping Round of 4 Results

Governor’s Cup Team Roping Round of 8 Results