Team ropers looking to win 2nd straight world title at NFR

Team ropers Tyler Wade and Wesley Thorp could not have asked for a better start to their partnership in their first season working together last year.

Wade and Thorp had a strong regular season and stayed consistent through last year’s National Finals Rodeo to win the team roping world title.

This year, Wade and Thorp are having just as strong of a season in their quest to successfully defend their title.

They posted a first-round record time of 3.7 seconds Thursday at the NFR at the Thomas & Mack Center. They both won $33,687 in earnings and are leading the headers (Wade) and heelers (Thorp) standings.

“It felt great to start off with a new round record. It’s always good to get some extra money out here as early as you can,” Wade said. “We’re looking forward to the next rounds.”

Even though Wade and Thorp entered last year’s NFR leading the standings, they said they know anything can happen throughout 10 rounds with all the money on the line.

“You’re going to have a target on your back no matter what, and it’s never over until the 10th steer,” Thorp said. “It doesn’t matter how good it starts or midway or anything. It’s all about how you finish at the end.”

Added Wade: “No matter what, it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish. We better keep it rolling.”

‘Ride the wave’

They made a statement Thursday with their go-round win. Wade ($235,424.74) has a more than $24,000 lead over Dustin Egusquiza in the headers standings. Thorp ($235,424.74) leads Levi Lord by the same margin in the heelers standings.

With how quickly Wade and Thorp jumped to the lead Thursday, it could quickly go away with a bad run.

“You really can’t think about (the lead), especially as good as these guys roll up and everybody’s close enough together,” Thorp said. “They’re almost within one round win away from each other. We stub our toe and the 12th-place guy wins the round, he’s within striking distance. It’s kind of a toss-up, so you don’t really ever want to get caught up thinking about the race.”

At last year’s NFR, Wade and Thorp finished third in the average, placed in four rounds and claimed two go-round wins. It capped a strong season in which they captured eight wins in the regular season.

The world title was Wade’s first and Thorp’s second after a win in 2019. Even with the unpredictability of the 10 rounds, winning the title brought them added confidence heading into this year’s NFR, Wade said.

“You go from thinking you can do it, hoping you can do it and, then after, knowing you can do it,” Wade said. “Now that you know you can do it, you just stay the course, ride the wave and work as hard as you can.”

‘Something to build on’

Wade and Thorp have won four events this year and were co-champions at two other events. The top of the team roping standings changed throughout the year with Egusquiza (headers) and Lord (heelers) heading into Las Vegas with the lead.

“We had a pretty good year from the start,” Thorp said. “We had a small dry spell at the beginning of the summer, but it didn’t last very long and then we were able to finish the year strong. Overall, it’s about all you could ask for. We’re a couple of mistakes away from coming in as season leaders, but we had a really good year and definitely had something to build on coming into the finals.”

The duo of header Kaleb Driggers and heeler Junior Nogueira are third in the standings and within striking distance. Driggers and Nogueria won team roping world titles in 2021 and 2022 before Wade and Thorp claimed the title in 2023.

After one round, Thorp said the steers are as good as they’ve been at any NFR, and Wade said there could be more records broken. That could set up Wade and Thorp to make more NFR history.

“That’s the goal, get it started off as good as you can,” Thorp said. “It can go the other way just as easy. To get the ball rolling, get something to build on, it’s pretty cool.”

Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X.