ProRodeo Sports News - July 23, 2021

CASPER, WYO.

Team ropers John Gaona/ Trevor Nowlin kept their strong season going by winning the two-head average in a rodeo- record time of 8.4 seconds at the Central Wyoming Fair & Rodeo in Casper, Wyo

Emily Hilton photos

As the leaders into the final round on July 17, the team sat down to talk strategy before roping. “We talked about it and said we’re going to try to be whatever we need to be. If we drew a good one, we’d try to go be fast and if we drew a bad one, we’d just go catch,” Nowlin said. “We wanted to go as fast as we could but stay clean and place good in the average,” Gaona said. As the short round played out, Anderson and Teller’s 4.3-second run forced Gaona and Nowlin to post a 4.9 to win first on their own. They came tight in 5.0 seconds. “Honestly, we were hoping for 4.9 but he took an extra swing, and I took an extra swing so . . . the tie for first is still good,” Nowlin said. Nowlin and Gaona met when Gaona’s older brother Steven came to work for Nowlin’s father while attending school at nearby Central Arizona College in Coolidge. “My sophomore year I started heeling for John and we made Nationals,” Nowlin said. The partners ended up switching ends and partners the next year and Gaona took home the national high school rodeo championship in 2016 as a heeler with Marcos Martinez. “I grew up heading for my brother, so I wanted to try heeling for a while,” Gaona joked. When he went off to CAC himself, he heeled the first year before moving back to the front end.

“I prefer heading, it’s more interesting and you control more.” Back in June, he headed at the College National Finals Rodeo in Casper, Wyo., for Nowlin’s twin brother, Trey. Gaona graduated with an ag business degree this spring while Nowlin has one more semester to secure his ag tech management degree from the University of Arizona in Tucson. For now, Gaona and Nowlin are on the ProRodeo trail together. In rare moments when not competing together inside the rodeo arena, they like to try a different competition, sometimes with unfortunate consequences for their hairstyles. “We like to play golf,” Nowlin said. “Well, John’s never really played much. We stayed in Laramie with my cousin, JC Flake, in between some rodeos and we went golfing.” Before long, the two teams of golfers were challenging each other and placing bets on which team would win each hole. Gaona was teamed with Flake while Nowlin was paired with another buddy. “We decided to match them; it was not a good idea,” Gaona. “Trevor is really good.” The stakes? Losers get mohawks. “I didn’t have to get a mohawk,” Nowlin laughed. Nowlin is ranked 19th in the PRCA | RAMWorld Standings. Gaona charged to the lead of the Resistol Rookie of the Year standings and is creeping his way into the world standings despite not getting to count the big win at Rapid as it was earned on his permit. “We’re going to go to as many as we can get to and hopefully, we’ll make the Finals,” Nowlin said.

SADDLE BRONC RIDING 1. Spencer Wright .... 172 pts. on two head 2. Logan Hay ....................................... 166 (Tie) Jesse Wright ........................... 166

TIE-DOWN ROPING 1. Z. Jongbloed ................... 17.1 sec. on 2 2. Hagen Houck .................................. 17.3 3. Tyson Durfey .................................. 17.6 Complete results/Page 61

BULL RIDING 1. Jordan Spears .................. 176 pts. on 2 2. Brady Portenier ............................... 171 3. Quentin Vaught .......................... 86 on 1

ProRodeo Sports News 7/23/2021

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