ProRodeo Sports News - Dec. 20, 2024

TEAM ROPING WORLD CHAMPIONS

PRCA ProRodeo photo by Click Thompson

Header Tyler Wade, left, and heeler Wesley Thorp celebrate after a 3.8-second run in Round 10 of the NFR. The run clinched the duo’s second straight world title.

PRCA ProRodeo photo by Click Thompson

Back-to-Back Champs

Let’s make the run we worked on coming out here.” The duo finished second in the final round with a 3.8-second run to defend their titles. The tandem finished 11th in the NFR Average with 23 seconds on six head. Clint Summers and Jake Long locked up the average championship at 44.3 seconds on nine head. “I can’t believe it. It’s crazy. I never thought we’d win one, so to win two is beyond belief,” Wade said. “I’ve been stressed all week going back and forth. I’ve been fast on nights and missed the next. I couldn’t get in a consistent role where I was kicking their teeth in by any means.” Wade finished with $361,480 to best runner-up Clint Summers. Thorp also finished with $361,480 to top runner-up Jake Long. The duo set new single-season earnings records, besting the previous mark of $340,708 set by Kaleb Driggers and Junior Nogueira in 2022.

Wade and Thorp also avoided a potential title split, as a few projections had headers and heelers from different tandems winning their respective gold buckles. “We were like, whatever happens, we’re going for both of us winning the world,” Thorp said. “We were either winning the world or going out swinging and going down with the ship. That was our goal. We didn’t look at it like, ‘Oh you can do it if we did this.’ “Whatever it took for us to both win it, that’s what we were going for.” The duo placed on all six of their completed runs, including wins in Round 1 and Round 2 at 3.7 seconds and 3.6 seconds in Round 5. “For me, it’s the people behind us that did it like sponsors, friends, family and Wesley,” Wade said. “God has put the right people in our life to give me a team that has my back no matter what. Through the highs and lows, they don’t care. And the support system is a lot stronger than I am.”

Wade/Thorp hold on to defend team roping titles

BY ALEX DODD P erhaps no event had as many scenarios, projections and question marks as team roping entering Round 10 of the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo presented by Teton Ridge. The door stayed wide open for a host of teams to walk through and earn a PRCA World Championship. But throughout the 10-round throwdown at the Thomas & Mack Center, the lead in the PRCA | RAM World Standings

never changed hands.

Header Tyler Wade and heeler Wesley Thorp landed in Las Vegas second

in the world but moved to the top in Round 1. And despite a roller coaster of runs at the NFR, the duo held on to win their second straight PRCA World Championships. “It was way up in the air. There were a lot of scenarios flipped around,” Thorp said. “But when we backed into the box, probably five seconds before we backed into the box, we looked at each other and said let’s make our run.

ProRodeo Sports News 12/20/2024

ProRodeo Sports News 12/20/2024

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