Local team ropers get hefty payday at Best of the Best

CHURCH ROCK, N.M.
It was redemption time for local cowboys Dylan Rector and Laramie Martinez.

After posting two no times last year, the two high school team ropers closed out the 2023 Best of the Best Timed Event Rodeo in spectacular fashion.

As the fourth high call back in the short round, the duo turned in a first-place run of 6.38 seconds to capture the event title Saturday night with a 22.2 aggregate on three head.

“This is big,” Rector said of winning one of the nation’s biggest youth rodeos. “I’m mean, you got some top ropers from all over like Florida and Texas, so it’s a big deal to win it.”

Martinez agreed while noting the prestige of the event that draws contestants from at least a dozen states.

“We’re competing against the best, so it’s pretty big to win this,” the Diné cowboy said.

For winning the average, they split the top prize of $7,200 while adding another $600 for their first-place win in the short round.

In the first round they turned in a 7.33 before adding an 8.49 run for a 15.82 aggregate going into the short round.

“Our steer kind of stalled in the box on our first one, but we ran it down halfway down,” Martinez said. “The second one was the same way; it kind of stalled and we were an eight on it and that put us at 15.”

After two heads, there were three teams inside the 15-second range that included the Rector/Martinez duo while the high call back team turned in a pair of fast runs at 12.26 seconds.

In the short round, things took on a strange twist with the third high call back team roping a leg while the top two teams posted a pair of no times.

“I roped with Dylan last year and it didn’t go as planned,” Martinez said. “We did really bad last year, so this year we wanted to get our redemption back and it all worked in our favor.”

Rector said his nerves got the best of him one year ago as they left the event empty-handed.

“Last year I missed both of my steers for Laramie,” the Blanco, New Mexico cowboy said. “This year I told him, ‘let’s get entered, so I can get my redemption back,’ and we did it.”

Rector said he was not nervous at all during the four-day rodeo that was hosted by the City of Gallup.

“I had none of that,” he said. “I mean, I feel like I’m roping with confidence and I just knew that I to had catch all of my steers for Laramie because he’s one the best heelers that I’ve roped with.

“It means a lot to win the Best of the Best with him,” he added.

In that final round, Martinez said they drew a good steer and they used it to their liking.

“We had planned on going out there and making a clean run,” he said. “We had a good steer and we just took advantage of it.”

As for his partner, Martinez said Rector “handled” the steer really nice for him.

“All I had to do is do what I do in the practice pen,” he said. “He was on the barrier just right and it all worked in our favor in the end.”

Earlier this year, the duo won the state title in the New Mexico High School Rodeo Association and now they are headed to the National High School Finals Rodeo scheduled for July 16-22 in Gillette, Wyoming.

“We had a pretty good damn year,” Martinez said. “We roped pretty much every day at either his house or my house. When we’re not roping together, he practiced by himself, and I roped morning and night.”

Martinez said they captured the state title after posting a clean run in the first round.

“That sealed the deal for us,” he said. “We had it wrapped up, so for our other two runs we were just trying to catch. I didn’t hold my end on one run, but we still caught two out of the three.”

Rector said he’s looking forward to roping with his partner at nationals as the duo is looking to make some noise.

“We’re just going to have fun and make the same runs we did here at the Best of the Best,” Rector said.

“There’s gonna be some pressure, but we’re going to stick with what we do best,” Martinez added. “We’ve practiced all year long and, basically it’s just going to be another practice run for us.”