ProRodeo Sports News - August 7, 2020

more after the last week of July and first week of August. Those two weeks are probably the biggest two weeks we have left in the season besides the Tour Finale in Rapid City (S.D., Sept. 23-26).” Hanchey was eighth in the Aug. 4 world standings with $40,954. “I’m entering rodeos I have obviously never been to before, and if they have them, I’m going to try and be there,” Hanchey said. “When all this was going down this spring, we all kind of talked about how we were going to be driving more to win less, but I think it is a lot easier said than done. Now that we are actually having to get in the driver’s seat and drive farther to win less it is taxing mentally and physically. “There’s no Plan B. I’m doing everything I can to make it 11 straight trips to the NFR. It is always worth it to make it to the NFR, whether it is your first trip or 11th. I think this year is just going to be a crazy, asterisk-type year and we have to push through it.” Jacobs Crawley, the 2015 saddle bronc riding world champ and nine-time NFR qualifier is just taking things day by day. Crawley is eighth in the Aug. 4 world standings. “I haven’t even looked at it yet,” said Crawley about the amount that will get a saddle bronc rider to the Wrangler NFR. “I usually don’t look at things until toward the end of (August) and piece together how September is going to look. There’s so much up in the air this year … because the rodeos that are scheduled we don’t know if they are even going to happen. Given the circumstances of this year, I realistically could believe $45,000 being the number to get in. “It is such a different year because there are so many guys jumbled up in there with little separation. Usually at this time of year you can see how the standings are taking shape.” But Crawley isn’t complaining. “I’ve been really grateful, and I think we have appreciated things more now than ever because you missed it so bad for those few months that we were all off,” he said. “You’re willing to wear a mask or drive a little farther to go to a rodeo. You’re just happy to be at an exciting rodeo and feel that little bit of normalcy.

PRCA ProRodeo photo by Clay Guardipee Tie-down roper Haven Meged shocked the rodeo world last year by winning a world title and the average at the 2019 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo as a rookie. First-time 2019 NFR qualifiers eyeing return Q ualifying the first time for the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo is quite an accomplishment. But this year, earning a bid to the coveted Wrangler NFR has taken on a completely different meaning due to the COVID-19 The rodeo season was halted in mid-March and resumed the third week of May. Now cowboys who made their first NFRs a year ago are scrambling to make a return trip. “There’s so much uncertainty we don’t know where we are going,” said Haven Meged, who won the tie-down roping world championship as a rookie in 2019. “There’s so much driving. It feels like it’s a 10-hour drive to every rodeo we go to. Then, you never know if a rodeo is going to get called off when we are on the way with all this coronavirus stuff going on.” Meged, who is fourth in the Aug. 4 PRCA | RAM World Standings, has put the map on his phone in overdrive to get to rodeos this season. pandemic.

PRCA ProRodeo photo by Dan Hubbell Reigning six-time world champion bull rider Sage Kimzey celebrates after a round at the 2019 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo. Kimzey believes the No. 15 bull rider will have to earn at least $57,500 to qualify for the Finals.

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ProRodeo Sports News 8/7/2020

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