A new, diverse batch of national circuit champions was crowned at The NFR Open at The Pikes Peak or Bust Rodeo last Saturday, this time with $688,000 in prize money at stake.

Two-time NFR qualifier Cooper Cooke was crowned the bareback riding champion after an event-best 87.5 points on Sankey Pro Rodeo & Phenom Genetics’ Mustard won him the Finals.

Cooke advanced out of his bracket in second with 166 points on two. Across three rides, he earned $16,000 and now sits No. 10 in the PRCA World Standings.

World No. 1 Bradlee Miller led all riders with 172 points on two heading into the Short Round, but finished third overall after an 85.5-point ride. World No. 7 Luke Thrash finished second with 86 points.

Traver Johnson found the biggest win of his young career, collecting $18,250 in prize money for his bulldogging title.

The 22-year-old opened with a second-place 5.0 in Round 1 of Bracket 2 before winning Round 2 with a 3.9. He qualified second in his bracket with 8.9 seconds on two head.

Johnson saved his best for last, though, stopping the clock in 3.7 seconds in the Final Round to win the event. He beat Ty Erickson by one-tenth of a second and Grant Peterson by two-tenths.

World Top 10 team ropers Jake Smith and Nicky Northcott, who don’t normally rope together, placed third in both of their bracket rounds on their way to qualifying third with 11.5 seconds on two.

They were the fastest in the Finals, though, turning in an event-best 4.3-second run to win the NFR Open and $16,000 each.

World No. 3 Kade Bruno won his third career NFR Open title after previously winning in 2022 and 2023. He opened by winning Round 1 of his bracket with 86 points on Sankey Pro Rodeo & Phenom Genetics’ Great Reflection and qualified first in the group with 167.5 on two.

Bruno capped it off with an event-best 88.5 points on Sankey Pro Rodeo & Phenom Genetics’ Atomic Blonde to win the Short Round and $16,000 overall.

2019 World Champion Haven Meged was 8.3 seconds in the Short Round to win the tie-down roping, reaching the Finals after two third-place finishes in his bracket for an aggregate time of 19.0 seconds.

It’s Meged’s first circuit national championship since winning it in Kissimmee, Florida in 2019. The win moved him to World No. 3 with $120,162 in season earnings.

In second was Shad Mayfield, who also won Salinas in what was by far his best weekend since returning from a six-month layoff due to hip surgery.

In breakaway roping, there was not a single run in the 1s until Taylor Munsell and Tiffany Schieck both did it in the Finals to split the win and take home $11,000 each.

Shieck was also 2 flat in Bracket 3, Round 2, which was enough to get her through to the Finals despite a no time in Round 1. Munsell, on the other hand, advanced first out of Bracket 1 without winning a round.

Caitlyn White stopped the clock 17.31 and 17.35 seconds to finish second and third in her bracket rounds in the barrel racing before turning a 17.29-second run to win the event and earn $16,750.

Katelyn Scott finished a close second with a 17.33, while Megan McLeod-Sprague was third with a 17.38.

Twenty-two-year-old Gavin Knutson was the only bull rider to cover all three of his bulls and cruised to the event title. He was 87 in the Short Round with the only other bull riding making the whistle, Ernie Courson Jr., totaling just 69 points.

Knutson qualified first out of Bracket 1 with 166.5 points on two head after winning Round 2 with 87.5 points on Brookman Rodeo’s Splitting Tens.

With the $17,750 he won in total, it was the biggest win of Knutson’s career.