Canadian cowboy wins gold buckle in tight NFR finale
There are tens of thousands of bucking bronc and bull rides in a professional rodeo season.
The 2022 saddle bronc championship wasn’t decided until the last one.
When Saturday’s 10th and final round of the National Finals Rodeo at the Thomas & Mack Center began, Sage Newman, Lefty Holman, Stetson Wright and Zeke Thurston were separated by $5,600 — which, over the long haul of the season, is akin to the change one finds between sofa cushions during a spring cleaning.
Thurston won the gold buckle by riding Andrew Rodeo’s All or Nothing for 89.5 points to share the go-round win and also clinch first place in the NFR average — a contestant’s aggregate score over the 10 rounds that pays a $74,150 bonus to the winner.
When the dust cleared Saturday, it was the bonus that enabled Thurston to outlast the other contenders.
”That was an unreal week,” said Thurston, who pumped his fists and slapped high-fives with arena personnel after charging to his third world title with an NFR haul of $256,077 and season earnings of nearly $400,000. He and Wright, who finished tied for fifth, were the only of the pace-setters to add to their winnings in the final round.
“I drew some outstanding horses,” said the Canadian cowboy from Big Valley, Alberta. “My goal coming in here was to make the best possible ride on every horse that I had. I feel like I did that, and this is the end result.”
Despite coming up short in the saddle bronc is his bid for a rare triple championship (all-around, saddle bronc, bull riding) it was another spectacular NFR for Wright.
By the time the 10th round got under way, the 23-year-old four-time champion all-around cowboy from Milford, Utah, already had established records for season earnings ($822,545) as well as money won in the all-around ($653,433) and bull riding ($517,994).
He placed in 15 of the 20 rounds in which he competed, and rode eight of 10 bulls.
The steer wrestling battle also came down to the last round. Tyler Waguespack tied for fourth place to overtake projected champion Will Lummus, who failed to place Saturday and slipped to third in NFR average with a disastrous time of 14.6 seconds.
Lummus finished runner-up to four-time world champ Waguespack by $2,693 — less than what a sixth-place round finish pays in the finals.
The 2022 champions:
Bareback riding
Jess Pope
Waverly, Kansas
Age: 24
Season earnings: $390,620
World championships: 1
2022 NFR earnings: $231,361
2022 NFR go-round wins: 2
Steer wrestling
Tyler Waguespack
Gonzales, Louisiana
Age: 31
Season earnings: $268,881
World championships: 4
2022 NFR earnings: $145,008
2022 NFR go-round wins: 1
Team roping (header)
Kaleb Driggers
Hoboken, Georigia
Age: 32
Season earnings: $340,708
World championships: 2
2022 NFR earnings: $112,830
2022 NFR go-round wins: 0
Team roping (heeler)
Junior Nogueira
Presidente Prudente, Brazil
Age: 32
Season earnings: $340,708
World championships: 2
2022 NFR earnings: $112,830
2022 NFR go-round wins: 0
Saddle bronc riding
Zeke Thurston
Big Valley, Alberta
Age: 28
Season earnings: $399,915
World championships: 3
2022 NFR earnings: $256,077
2022 NFR go-round wins: 2
Tie-down roping
Caleb Smidt
Bellville, Texas
Age: 33
Season earnings: $374,736
World championships: 4
2022 NFR earnings: $225.220
2022 NFR go-round wins: 2
Barrel racing
Hailey Kinsel
Cotulla, Texas
Age: 28
Season earnings: $302,172
World championships: 4
2022 NFR earnings: $182,782
2022 NFR go-round wins: 5
Bull riding
Stetson Wright
Milford, Utah
Age: 23
Season earnings: $592,143
World championships: 2
2022 NFR earnings: $271,544
2022 NFR go-round wins: 3
All-around cowboy
Stetson Wright
Milford, Utah
Age: 23
Season earnings: $758,828
World championships: 8
2022 NFR earnings: $414,240
2022 NFR go-round wins: 4
Contact Ron Kantowski at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow @ronkantowski on Twitter.
