Becenti, Alcott take piece of July Fourth pie

Posted by Quentin Jodie | Jul 7, 2022 | Rodeo |

WINDOW ROCK

Plenty of “wolves” dotted the team-roping field at the Annual Fourth of July Celebration.

They were the favorites to take home a big piece of the pie at the Navajo Nation’s PRCA rodeo.

On Monday night, an emerging youngster surprised the field with a second-place finish as 22-year-old Erik Becenti turned in a 6.0 run with heeling partner Jeremy Alcott inside a packed crowd at the Dean C. Jackson Memorial Arena.

“I was pretty nervous at the beginning, but I’ve roped here before, so I kind of got comfortable,” Becenti said. “It kind of calmed my nerves a little bit.”

This was Becenti’s second PRCA event, having roped at the Wickenburg Pro Rodeo in early April.

“I had some tough luck there,” he said.

That was not the case on the final night at the Window Rock rodeo, as Becenti put forth a breakthrough performance.

“I grew up watching pro rodeos here, and just to get entered and rope here is pretty dang cool,” he said. “You know, this is going to get my confidence up. I finally got something done, and this is pretty exciting.”

Alcott said he had a lot of faith in his roping partner even though he’s still a little green in the PRCA ranks.

“He ropes really good, and I’ve seen him in the INFR Tour rodeos,” Alcott said of Becenti. “He ropes with a lot of Navajo guys, and he’s won some money.”

Initially, both ropers were supposed to compete with other partners, but those plans didn’t come to fruition as Alcott initiated the call, asking Becenti to be his partner.

“The first person I thought of was Erik because I had seen him in Wickenburg,” Alcott said. “I called PROCOM, and I got his phone number.”

Alcott was pleased with how Becenti handled himself, especially with a packed crowd.

“He did really good job,” he said. “He got our real good, and he stuck out that steer good and gave me a good shot.”

This was Alcott’s third win in the PRCA’s Turquoise Circuit this year as he moved up to No. 11 in the circuit standings by amassing $3,902.

“I’ve placed in Scottsdale, and I placed second in Payson,” Alcott said. “With this win, it’s moved me up quite a bit. I want to try and make the circuit finals.”

With the pandemic canceling the PRCA rodeo in Window Rock for two years, Alcott said he was happy to give the crowd something to cheer for on Monday night.

“It felt really nice to be back in Window Rock for a rodeo,” he said. “And to make a good run in front of a big crowd like that was pretty exciting.”