The Ellensburg Rodeo kicks off the final stretch of competition with an event-record $320,000 in prize money up for grabs.

The final month of the 2026 PRCA regular season has begun, and athletes have just four weeks left to make their marks and earn their NFR bid.

Most of the top athletes from around the PRCA will battle head-to-head in the Evergreen State in what is shaping up to be the most impactful Ellensburg Rodeo in years.

Here’s a look at the top competitors of this year’s event:

Wacey Schalla and Rocker Steiner are making their returns from injury in Ellensburg after a long three-month hiatus.

2025 World Bareback Riding Champion Rocker Steiner will participate in his first event since May 16th. He underwent surgery in June to repair two herniated discs in his neck. Steiner had $122,142 in season earnings before missing time, but returns still well inside the NFR qualifying zone in 12th.

While it will be an opportunity for Steiner to get re-accustomed to the competition, he won the event back in 2022, and there isn’t a better way for him to re-introduce himself than to win again on his return campaign for back-to-back World Titles.

Wacey Schalla broke his femur last May and has missed over three months recovering. Schalla made an early return attempt at Farm-City Pro Rodeo back in mid-August, but was promptly bucked off for the first time all year. Schalla had earned $109,070 before his hiatus, and returned just in time to potentially save an NFR qualification, as he fell to 15th.

Jess Pope has won three of the last four rounds at Ellensburg, and has won the last two averages too. He’s averaged 86.38 points per ride at the event since 2024. Three wins in a row is unprecedented, not just in the Bareback event, but in all events at Ellensburg. A third win not only puts Pope in rarefied air, but could also help him jump from 4th to 3rd in the World Standings.

Just six names have won the last eight rounds at Ellensburg, dating back to 2022. Stetson Wright owns three of those round wins, while Damian Brennan and Wyatt Casper have two wins each. Those three are the only riders to have won Ellensburg in the last four years, with Wright winning in 2023 and 2023, Casper in 2024, and Brennan last year. Brennan will miss this year’s event, leaving the door open for Casper or Wright to continue their dominance, or for someone else to take the spotlight.

Since 2021, Stetson Wright has finished 4th, 3rd, and 2nd twice, including 2nd last year, but has yet to win the Bull Riding Average in Ellensburg. He won just one round in that time, 2023’s Round 1, and has yet to find the riding peak he is capable of in Ellensburg.

Things won’t get easier for Wright, though, as top-ranked rookies Noah Lee, John Crimber, and Hayden Welsh will all be participating and have, so far, either outscored or out-earned Wright this season, with Lee having done both.

Summer Kosel joined Brittany Pozzi Tonozzi and Jordon Briggs as the only Barrel Racers to win multiple rounds at Ellensburg this decade. Kosel won the Short Round last year, which earned her the 2025 Average win, and also won Round 2 back in 2022. Briggs has won three rounds, while Pozzi Tonozzi has won two. Briggs won’t be participating this year, however.

J.D. Struxness has won three of the last four averages at Ellensburg. He won in 2022, 2023, and 2025. Furthermore, Struxness has won five of Ellensburg’s last 15 rounds, dating back to 2021.

Hunter Herrin is the only Calf Roper to have won Ellensburg twice in the last 10 years, doing so in 2022 and 2024. A win in 2026 would fit his pattern of winning every other year.

World No.1 Tie-Down Roper Riley Webb has yet to win the average, but has been close. He’s won rounds in each of the last two events, and finished 3rd in the average in 2024 and 2nd in 2025.

Webb was 7.5-seconds to win 2024’s Second Round, marking the fastest out at Ellensburg this decade, and was just .1 seconds off tying the arena record.

Since 2021, only one Team Roper, Coleby Payne, has posted multiple sub-4.5-second times at Ellensburg. Payne did so twice, first in 2022 roping with Lightning Aguilera, winning Round 2 with a 4.2, just .1-seconds off tying the arena record, and again in 2023 roping with Clay Smith, winning Round 2 with a 4.5.

Payne has yet to place in the event’s average, but will rope this year alongside Clay Smith once again, who won the average back in 2022.

A new Steer Roping average winner every event this decade; J. Tom Fisher won last year. Fisher became the only athlete to have won multiple rounds at Ellensburg since 2021. He had won the Second Round in 2021 with a 9.1 and was 11.1 to win 2025’s First Round.

Stats to Know:

No Saddle Bronc rider has been 90 at Ellensburg since 2023, when Damian Brennan was 90 and Stetson Wright was 90.5.

The winning Average score at Ellensburg has steadily decreased since 2024, when Stetson Wright won with 178 on two.

The winning score fell to 177.5 the following year, then 177 in 2024, and finally 174.5 last year, marking the lowest winning score of the decade.

That’s a near two-point decrease from needing to average 89 points per ride to just 87.25 to win.

Ellensburg will feature no shortage of riders capable of surpassing that mark, specifically, Rusty Wright, Ryder Wright, Sage Newman, and Brody Wells, all of whom have at least 20 87.5+ rides on the year.

The average round-winning score in the Bareback event since 2021 has been 87.95 points.

That score would have won just four of the last 10 rounds, though.

Every Short Round-winning score this decade has been at least 1.5 points better than Round 1’s winning score. This jump was best exemplified last year, when Cole Franks was 90.5 in the Short Round, setting a new arena record, and beating out Jess Pope’s Round 1 87 by 3.5 points.

No Bareback rider this decade had been 90 at Ellensburg until Franks. Besides Franks, the most recent high score was Rocker Steiner’s 89.5 on Calgary Stampede’s Agent Lynx in 2022, when he won the event.

Nine of the 15 round-winning times in the Steer Wrestling event at Ellensburg this decade have been 4.0 or faster, including four of the last six.

The current top-8 ranked BullDoggers will participate in Ellensburg, and each of them has at least 12 outs on the season at 4.0 seconds or faster. Those riders are Tyler Waguespack, Jesse Brown, Cash Robb, Ty Erickson, J.D. Struxness, Riley Duvall, Tristan Martin, and Rowdy Parrot.

The winning Average score in the Team roping event has gotten faster every year since 2023, when a time of 17.0 seconds on three head won. It fell to 16.6 in 2024, and again to 16.4 last year. It’s still slower, though, than the winning times of 15.8 in 2021 and 14.9 in 2022.

The Average winners, despite their variety of times, have won by an average of 1.16 seconds over 2nd place.

Every year a team shines brighter than the rest, and if the trend continues, then Ellensburg will have another unique Champion Team, as no athlete has won the event twice in over 11 years.

Ellensburg’s 2025 Tie-Down Average Champion Cole Clemons’ winning time of 27.4 on three was the slowest winning time of the decade, with the previous slowest being 26.8 in 2021.

That coincides with the fact that 2025 was the first event since 2016 not to feature a single round-winning time faster than 8.0 seconds.

However, that may change this year, as the top five riders with the best average time will be competing in Ellensburg. Riley Webb, Shane Hanchey, John Douch, Kincade Henry, and Haven Meged are all under 10.5 seconds on average, and each has at least 14 outs on the year at 8.0 seconds or faster.

The Barrel Racing event has consistently been one of, if not the most competitive events at Ellensburg.

Every Average-winning time since 2021 has fallen between 51.54 and 51.21 seconds, averaging out at 51.39 seconds.

That means riders must aim for an average-round winning time of 17.13 seconds to be in the conversation for event Champion with a razor-thin margin of error. The lower and higher ends of the average round winning times this decade for event winners are 17.07 and 17.18 seconds, leaving just .11 seconds of wiggle room.

Not only will the eventual Champion need to be consistently quick, but they should aim to win a round, as four of the last five Average champions won at least one round.

There hasn’t been a single score of 90 or better at Ellensburg since Aaron Williams was 90 in 2019. That may change this year, as the five Bull Riders with the most 90+ point scores this season will be competing. Noah Lee, John Crimber, Tristen Hutchings, Stetson Wright, and Hayden Welsh lead all other Bull Riders with at least six 90-point scores each.

The winning Average score in the Steer Roping event has been inconsistent this decade, fluctuating between 20.3 at its fastest and 27.8 at its slowest. The winning time has flipped back and forth between being faster and slower than the year before. 2025’s winning time of 25.2 was faster than the year prior in 2024, when it was 27.2. If the trend continues, then a time marginally slower than 25.2, closer to the high 26s or low 27s, would be expected, leaving a wider field of potential Champions.