Begay, Rogers eyeing gold buckles at WNFR

Posted by Quentin Jodie | Dec 5, 2024 | Rodeo |

WINDOW ROCK – The 66th Annual Wrangler National Finals Rodeo gets underway on Thursday inside the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The top hands in the PRCA will compete for 10 days with the 2024 world champions being crowned on Saturday, Dec. 14.

Navajo team ropers Derrick Begay and Erich Rogers earned their tickets by finishing in the top 15 in the world standings at the end of the regular rodeo season, which concluded on Sept. 30.

“It’s always good to be back,” Begay said of making the WNFR with $105,068 in earnings. “I mean, this is where every guy wants to be at. I barely got in to where I ended up 15th, so I got the last spot, but I’ll take it.”

Earlier this week, the Wrangler National Finals Breakaway Roping took place at the South Point Equestrian Center with Diné roper Danielle Lowman earning her spot as the No. 8 roper, having amassed 497,998 during the regular season. (As the paper went to print, results for the WNFBR were not available).

Rogers enters this year’s finals at No. 13 with $108,313 in total winnings in the header’s position. This is Rogers 13th qualification in the WNFR, and he is teamed up with Missouri cowboy Paul Eaves as the two cowboys won eight rodeos this past season.

Begay, meanwhile, will have a new dance partner in Johnathan Torres. For the entire year, Begay roped with heeling partner Colter Todd while Torres teamed up with header Nelson Wyatt.

Their roping partners, however, missed the cut.

“Obviously, he ropes good,” Begay said of Torres. “There’s a reason why he’s here. There’s a reason why he’s in the top 15. Somebody asked me the other day, ‘Does Jonathan heel pretty good?’ I told them that, you know, he only heels as good as I can head because if I can’t turn them (the steers), he can’t do his part.

“That’s my take on him, so I’m not worried about him,” Begay added. “I just have to do my part. He’s good and he’s been around for a while. He was here last year, so he’s been around.”

At last year’s finals, Begay won the average race for the very first time. And while Begay would like another shot at it, the Seba Dalkai, Arizona cowboy said it’s too early to start making any projections in how the race will play out.

“I really don’t look at it that way,” Begay said. “Yeah, that is what you want, but it’s 10 days and 10 steers. It’s a long way until we reach the end.

“Yeah, it’s what every person wants, but you get one steer every night and I just want to focus on that one steer,” he added. “I want to do my job. When it gets closer to the end, that is when you can start thinking about the average, but my mindset more than anything is to do my job.”