EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first of 20 biographies I will publish for this year’s Timed Event Championship, set for March 1-3 at the Lazy E Arena. The remaining 19 bios will be published over the next couple of weeks leading up to this year’s championship; this is how they will appear in the souvenir program.

ERICH ROGERS, Round Rock, Ariz.

The credentials are pretty solid for Erich Rogers: He’s qualified for the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo each of the past two years, where he and partner Kory Koontz placed third in the average race; Rogers finished fifth when the final heading world standings were released.

But there’s a lot more to Rogers than that. Raised in Round Rock, Ariz., on the Navajo Nation, Rogers is a talented cowboy and can handle numerous tasks. In fact, he won the all-around title at the 2008 All Indian Rodeo Cowboys Association Championship Rodeo. Since then, he’s made quite a hand in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association.

Roping with fellow Arizonan Cory Petska, Rogers won a number of rodeos in 2009 and 2010, including the prestigious Rodeo Austin (Texas). While roping with Koontz in 2011-12, the pair won events in Tucson, Ariz. (twice); Colorado Springs, Colo.; and Lovington, N.M. They also won Round 7 at the 2011 NFR.

Reunited with Petska, the duo has already earned one big win in 2013 in Odessa, Texas. Now he’ll put that winning history to the test inside this arena this weekend. It should be a great show.