ProRodeo Sports News | 2020 Year-End Edition | Dec.18, 2020

TEAM ROPING WORLD CHAMPIONS

Without scoring any money in the average, a last-minute rush of three consecutive go-round wins helped Colby Lovell, right, and Paul Eaves win a pair of gold buckles. PRCA ProRodeo photo by Roseanna Sales

After the Gold Rush

Lovell and Eaves win final three rounds for titles

BY MATT NABER W inning the final three go-rounds of the 2020Wrangler National Finals Rodeo launched team ropers Colby Lovell and Paul Eaves to the top of the PRCA | RAMWorld Standings in their respective events.

14th in the average with 42.8 seconds on three head. But the world standings were tight, so their first go- round win pushed Lovell to third and Eaves to sixth. Splitting the win in Round 9 pushed them to the top of the world standings, but they were still 14th in the average and odds were good that whomever won the average would win the world.

Every cowboy becomes a math whiz during the NFR, and Eaves was no exception. He knew as soon as Round 9 was over that they had a chance. “We saw the standings, and the average plays such a big part in this deal that nobody ever wins the world without at least some average money,” Eaves

A gold rush over those three rounds earned Lovell his first world title in team roping heading by a margin of $453 with $187,836, and Eaves won his second team roping heeling world title by $2,983 with $178,486. Going into Round 8, the duo was seventh in the world in their events and

ProRodeo Sports News 12/18/2020

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