championship combination

LAS VEGAS – Prior to Tuesday’s first round of the YETI Junior World Finals open team roping, Kaitlyn Torres and Michael Calmelat had never roped together.

Twenty-four hours and four runs later, the pair were world champions.

“We both had points on the board and they needed teams,” Torres, a 17-year-old from Alice, Texas, explained, “so I texted him and asked if he wanted to rope with me and he said yes.”

It wasn’t the first time Torres had tried to recruit Calmelat as her partner, but this time things worked out for Torres. And for Calmelat.

“She had asked me to rope with her a few times,” Calmelat, a 16-year-old from Tucson, Arizona, said, “but I was always with my partners so we never had a chance to rope together until this week.”

The pair were in sync from the start.

They backed into the box Tuesday morning before Torres nodded her head and burst into the arena. She made a clean catch, turned the steer and Calmelat roped both feet for a 5.60 to place fourth in the first round.

They had an 8.28 in the second round, but came back Wednesday morning with a 5.95 to move to the top of the leaderboard.

“I just knew if I put it on the horns for him, he’d clean up my mess,” Torres said of Calmelat.

Added Torres: “I knew she would turn ‘em, I just tried to heel ‘em.”

In the short go, they were the last of the 15 teams to rope and watched as the teams sitting second through seventh all had no-times. That left Jesus Leyva of Azle, Texas, and Wesson Parker of Marlow, Oklahoma, leading the average with a four-run time of 48.82 seconds. Torres and Calmelat were 19.83 on three runs, so they obviously had some time to work with.

They didn’t need it, stopping the clock in 5.87 seconds to win the short go and take the average title with a time of 25.70 seconds on four head.

“They said we had to be 30 (seconds) to win it,” Torres said, “but I wasn’t going to back off.”

While this was the first Junior World Finals title for Torres, Calmelat has had success in Vegas before. He won his first world title at the 2018 JWF.

Torres will be chasing another title this week with a couple of familiar faces in the #10.5 division. Beginning Wednesday morning she will head for Cash Cockrum and heel for Bryce Ehlinger, two kids she ropes with in Texas youth rodeos.

Calmelat, meanwhile, is headed back to Arizona, $10,000 richer (both he and Torres got checks for the average title as well as winning saddles, championship buckles, ropes, Resistol hats, Burromax mini-bikes and more) and with another potential roping partner in the future.

Other open team roping winners were:

Chase Helton (header) of Merced, California, and Ketch Kelton (heeler) of Mayer, Arizona, won the first round with a 4.17; Eli Green (header) of Oakdale, California, and Helton (heeler) won the second go with a 4.48; and Ehlinger (header) and Zane Starns (heeler) of Port Lavaca, Texas, won the third round with a 5.33.