Nelson Wyatt and Jonathan Torres banked $19,433 apiece Aug. 18-22, including $12,495 each at Caldwell Night Rodeo, to move Wyatt to No. 14 and Torres to No. 18 in the PRCA world standings.

Wyatt and Torres had already put themselves in position for big money more than once this summer. This week, they finally started finishing those opportunities.

The NFR qualifiers led the team ropers in money earned this week with $19,433 a man between Caldwell Night Rodeo, the Cassia County Fair & Rodeo in Burley, Idaho, and the Moses Lake Round-Up Rodeo.

More than $12,000 of that came from Caldwell alone.

Read more on Aug. 18-22 top money earners

Wyatt and Torres opened Caldwell with a 4.6-second run to win the first round and $4,604 each. After a solid run in Round 2, they ended up high call to the short round, a place they’ve found themselves in within the last month.

“We were high call at Hermiston last week or two weeks ago and didn’t have a great steer,” Wyatt said. “Then we were third high callback at Dodge a few weeks ago and had a really good steer and I missed, so we’d had two pretty good chances in short rounds to win good money, and it just didn’t come together.”

Their Caldwell short-round steer wasn’t one they loved, either, but Wyatt said their approach was different.

“I think we were both on the same page,” Wyatt said. “We were just kind of ready to finish it.”

They did.

Wyatt and Torres were 5.4 seconds in the finals to finish second for $984 apiece, giving them a 15.4-second time on three head. That was half a second faster than Tanner Tomlinson and Wesley Thorp’s 15.9-second runner-up average and earned Wyatt and Torres another $6,907 each.

Altogether, Caldwell paid them $12,495 apiece.

Torres said the goal was simply to keep taking each opportunity as it came rather than letting the size of the moment dictate their plan.

“I know we need to do good, but I just think we’re just backing in there and just taking a chance every time because that’s what we need to do,” Torres said. “We should be able to capitalize, I guess.”

They kept doing exactly that after Caldwell.

At Burley, Wyatt and Torres were 4.4 seconds for third to add $2,062 each to their total. Two days at Moses Lake, they ran one in 4.3 seconds to split second with James Arviso and Levi Lord, worth another $4,876 apiece.

Three rodeos and five checks later, the money had piled up faster than they expected.

“We’ve had a lot of chances, and it’s just crazy when you kind of get a string of some runs that you make some money,” Torres said. “Then it adds up quicker than a guy really even can kind of picture sometimes.”

For Wyatt, the $19,433 week was enough to move him inside the Top 15 with the final month of the regular season approaching. Torres remains just outside at No. 18.

Regardless, the guys say the plan is staying the same.

“Honestly, it doesn’t really change anything,” Wyatt said of the week. “We just try to win as much as we can whenever. As far as mentality, you run the steer for what it is every time anyway and hope it goes your way.”

The biggest difference, he said, is simply how good their run feels.

“It feels like we got a little momentum and our run feels as good now as it ever has really,” he said. “So that’s one thing to be excited about.”

Torres is trying to keep the same focus. The pair missed qualifying for the Cinch Playoffs, but he knows better than to think that means the story is over. Instead, the plan is to keep winning money elsewhere and stay ready for the next one.

“I try to just really stay in my lane for the most part and just take full advantage of the opportunity,” Torres said. “Just trying to trust the process.”

For Torres, even as a self-described numbers guy, that means not spending too much time staring at what still has to happen.

“We are just wanting start doing good and then figure the rest out later,” Torres said.

Wyatt isn’t declaring anything finished, either.

“We’re a long way from where we need to be and a long way from where we want to be,” Wyatt said.