For Shad Mayfield, the start of the Reno (Nev.) Rodeo was vastly different from the finish.
During his first tie-down roping run, the Clovis, N.M., native had a less than stellar showing. He finished in 10.1 seconds, well outside of placing in the round.
As expected, the current leader in the PRCA All-Around and Tie-Down Roping World Standings was unrattled by the result and responded in a big way.
“My first calf, I had a really bad first calf. I got by that calf to run two really good ones after that,” Mayfield said. “And when they run really good calves in there, you’ve just got to take advantage of it and make the best of it when you can, and that’s what I did. Being in Reno, I love the pressure of listening to (rodeo announcers) Bob Tallman and Wayne Brooks, and just the crowd being in it, that’s what fuels me to go, so that helped a lot as well.”
Mayfield came back to win the second round and short-go in Reno, with times of 7.5 and 7.6 seconds, respectively. His aggregate total of 25.2 seconds on three head was more than enough to stay ahead of runners-up Shane Hanchey and Cole Clemons, who finished tied at 27.2 seconds each.
His second straight Reno championship was another significant payday for Mayfield as he walked away with $17,724 in total earnings from the event. Mayfield now has more than $162,600 in tie-down earnings this season, putting him more than $60,000 ahead of the next closest competitor as the summer run begins.
While his monster regular season continues to roll, Mayfield isn’t letting up.
Last year, the win at Reno served as a launching point for a July run that saw Mayfield pick up a pair of wins at the Killdeer (N.D.) Mountain Roundup and the Cheney (Wash.) Rodeo, along with significant paydays at the Greeley (Colo.) Stampede, the St. Paul (Ore.) Rodeo and the Central Wyoming Fair & PRCA Rodeo in Casper in about a two-week span.
As the calendar once again flips to July and Cowboy Christmas officially gets underway next week, Mayfield is hoping to see a similar pattern over the next two-plus weeks.
“It’s huge to start it out like that. We have so many rodeos coming up and that just kind of boosts your confidence and gives you the positivity going into Cowboy Christmas and all that,” Mayfield said. “It kind of helped me last year going into Cowboy Christmas to have a good one then, and hopefully it’ll do the same this year. But it really just gets you in the right mindset of you’ve started off winning and everything is falling into place. You’ve just got to go out there and compete.”
Other winners at the $749,691 rodeo were all-around cowboy Wacey Schalla ($7,579, bareback riding and bull riding); bareback rider R.C. Landingham 257 points on three head); steer wrestlers Dalton Massey and Tucker Allen (13.9 seconds on three head); team ropers Andrew Ward/Kollin VonAhn (16.1 seconds on three head); saddle bronc rider Ryder Wright (259.5 points on three head); breakaway roper Taylor Munsell (8.0 seconds on three head); barrel racer Hailey Kinsel (51.54 seconds on three runs); and bull rider Tristen Hutchings (181 points on two head).
Courtesy of PRCA
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