Sandhills Stock Show Crowns Champions as the Rodeo Trail Heats Up for Winter

Winter has arrived across the United States, but the rodeo trail is heating up again. The 'Texas Swing' has started with some of the biggest rodeos across the country. See who did well in Odessa.

Shad Mayfield / Abigail Dollins/Statesman Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK

The Texas Swing is officially underway, and the first winter building rodeo of the season concluded last weekend in Odessa, Texas. While the National Finals Rodeo (NFR) just wrapped up, many athletes have hit the 2025 ProRodeo trail to start earning for their 2025 campaign. 

The Sandhills Stock Show and Rodeo took place over nine days and paid out $235,964 in total. With NFR Qualifiers like Shad Mayfield, Brody Cress, Clay Smith, Coleby Payne, and personnel including Nate Jestes and Dusty Tuckness, Odessa is a rodeo that many look forward to and is the true kick-off to the winter rodeos. 

The next generation of rodeo stars are starting to shine and that can be said for Saratoga, Wyo cowboy Tuker Carricanto. Already having an accomplished high school rodeo career, winning the National High School Bareback Champion title in 2022 & 23, this 19-year-old cowboy took home the 2025 Sandhills Stock Show and Rodeo Bareback Champion Buckle. Carricanto matched with Smoke Bomb from Beutler & Son Rodeo to score 86 points and cash a check worth $3,347. 

Making our way to the timed events side of the arena, we would have a four-time NFR qualifier, Riley Duvall, for the win in steer wrestling. Duvall was 7.8 seconds on two head during his time in Odessa. He took the first-round win with a time of 3.7 seconds and split second place in the second round with a 3.8-second time, bringing his winnings to a total of $5,176 for his time at the Sandhills Stock Show and Rodeo. 

Lightning Aguilera and Wyatt Cox carried the momentum they earned from their 4.7-second run in the first round into the second round, placing fourth. They stopped the clock at 4.3 seconds and earned the average title with 9 seconds on two head. 

Coming off his first NFR, the youngest Wright brother, Statler, claimed his second Sandhills Saddle Bronc Champion buckle for the second consecutive year. His four-legged animal athlete goes by the name of Diamond G Rodeo's To The Limit. They teamed up to score 88.5 points. 

1.8 seconds is all that it took for Karen Little and her horse Willie to secure the breakaway Champion title and cash a check of $5,198.  

Shad "Money" Mayfield started the 2025 season in an arena he knows well. He's won this rodeo multiple times in his career, last year being one of them. Mayfield was 17.1 seconds on two head to make his first victory lap of the winter rodeo season.

Oklahoma cowgirl Wenda Johnson ran the pattern in 14.9 seconds to take home the win. She secured the win by only 0.01 seconds, showing that these cowgirls will bring the heat for 2025.

Eighty-six points would be the highest on the leaderboard in the bull riding to secure the win for Vinell Mariano on Beutler & Son Rodeo's Shake N Bake. 

The 2025 winter rodeo season has just begun, and after the talent demonstrated last weekend, there's so much to look forward to.