LAS VEGAS – Every cowboy who has ever competed has dreamed of being in a race for a world championship.
J.D. Struxness is living it. He is third in the world standings with $222,105 after placing in Tuesday’s sixth round of the National Finals Rodeo and trails the leader, Will Lummus, by less than $16,000. He can move into the top spot by finishing third or better in one go-round, but he still has four nights left at this year’s championship to make things happen.
“This was our strong pen of steers,” said Struxness of Milan, Minnesota. “There are a couple of good ones in there where they’re going to slip in there and be threes (sub-4-second runs), but if you can be a short 4, there’s a chance to place.”
That’s exactly what he did, stopping the clock in 4.3 seconds to collect $2,717. He has earned $75,000 so far in Las Vegas, and he’s seeking more.
“We could maybe clean it up a little bit and place higher, but for the way that tonight did, we’ll just take the place we got,” he said. “You’ve got to take whatever steer you get and wo what you can with them. We’ll have to watch the video back and see if there is anything we could do to have sped them up. We knew that steer ran a lot and was going to try on the ground, so we needed to get a start and max him out and get a chunk of the round.”
In an event that takes place in mere seconds, there are technical aspects all competitors make to speed up the process. Canadian Scott Guenthner won the round but was half a second faster. He earned $31,000 more than Struxness.
The Minnesota cowboy, now living in Texas, was saddled with a no-time on Night 1, but he has bounced back and placed in four of the next five rounds – he was just two-tenths of a second out of placing Monday night. He made up ground Tuesday, though.
“I felt like I was fairly aggressive at the better, and then that steer was just trying down the pen,” he said. “The horses were good and (hazer) Matt (Reeves) was up there doing his job, and we made a pretty decent run on the ground.
“It’s what we could do on the steer for the night, and we landed in there to catch some money, so we’ll take it.”