Coming from the fourth callback position in Guthrie, Oklahoma, on June 22, team roping couple Hannah and Mike White of Dekalb, Texas, notched the biggest tandem win of their 21-year marriage.
The duo roped four steers in 34.09 seconds to split the $100,000 first-place paycheck in the #12.5 Showdown of Wrangler BFI Week, presented by Yeti. Last year’s champion heeler, Clay Elkington, placed third this time to earn $25,000, bringing his individual two-year haul in the #12.5 to $61,000. And placing fourth in the roping was 22-year-old Wyatt Hershberger, for $20,500. His win barely surpassed the $18,875 his two little brothers hauled in during the Hooey Jr. BFI two days earlier.

Anchored by the 43rd Annual Bob Feist Invitational for professionals on June 21, the five-day event includes eight affiliated amateur ropings and was held for the first time in the Lazy E Arena due to a pandemic-forced closure of its usual venue in Reno, Nevada.“We’ve never won anything big together,” said Mike White, who was wearing his 1999 PRCA gold buckle. “We struggle at it.”
Mike, 43, earned nearly $2 million riding bulls – plus the gold buckle and a 2012 PBR Ring of Honor induction – prior to his 2010 retirement.

Hannah and Mike White | Olie’s Images, LLC.

“We rope so much at home, it’s exciting for a plan to come together,” said Hannah, who rode a roan gelding that Mike had acquired to train and later bought. “Our only fights have come in the roping pen. We work so hard at it, and we’re both very competitive. I don’t care if we’re going to the concession stand, Mike will say ‘I’ll beat you over there.’”
Their final steer ran down the right fence, but White, a 7.5 heeler, had him roped on the second hop. When the top three teams had trouble, the Whites clinched the win.
“I’ve got a mindset I used riding bulls,” he said. “I knew I could ride anything they ran under me. I didn’t! But it works the same here. No matter what steer I draw, I know I can catch it by two feet. It works in any sport to be confident in what you can do.”
A Louisiana native, Mike trains roping horses and runs cattle when he’s not working as a ringman at regional auctions. In Guthrie, with his good horse hurt, Mike rode a 5-year-old gelding he’d trained and sold to his friend Bryan Caldwell.
“We wouldn’t be here without Bryan,” said Mike. “He talked us into entering.”
The Whites’s two sons, Logan, 16, and Morgan, 8, watched the big win, and the family was scheduled to be back in Dekalb the next day for Morgan’s baseball game. The couple’s annual Mike White’s Annual Pasture Roping, which benefits an organization supporting children with serious illnesses or injuries, was postponed this year to October 2-3.
All events during Wrangler BFI Week are streamed on www.WranglerNetwork.com.

Complete Results from the #12 Showdown on June 22:
First Round: 1. Wade Woodbury and Logan Wengert, 6.68 seconds, $3,500; 2. Danny Miller and Chris Pomeroy, 6.88, $3,000; 3. Chance Reppond and Chad Martin, 6.97, $2,500. Second Round: 1. Derek Luster and Troy Kitchener, 5.84 seconds, $3,500; 2. Derek Luster and Blake Larmon, 5.93, $3,000; 3. Mike Carrell and Scooter Wilson, 5.99, $2,500; Short Round (that didn’t place in the average): 1. Danny Miller and Shawn Vargas, 6.93 seconds, $3,500; 2. Coby LittleSoldier and Samuel Luchsinger, 7.16, $3,000; 3. Clay Johnson and Slick Robison, 7.24 $2,500.  Average: 1. Hannah White and Mike White, 34.09 seconds on four, $100,000; 2. Kade Elkins and Logan Wengert, 35.29, $70,000; 3. Shawnee Sherwood and Clay Elkington, 35.52, $50,000; 4. Kycen Winn and Wyatt Hershberger, 35.54, $41,000; 5. Thomas Braman and Tracy Estep, 36.60, $33,500; 6. Abby Medlin and Murt Stewart, 37.78, $25,000; 7. Craig Moore and Luke Growth, 38.02, $22,750; 8. Clay Saffell and Steve Mauldin, 38.61, $18,000; 9. Ken Matheson and Tony Graham, 38.64, $15,000; 10. Lee Hammonds and Gary Hughes, 38.74, $10,000.

Barry Berg, and Dustin Noblitt 11.5 Wrangler National Patriot Champions | Olie’s Images, LLC

Cactus Kingpins Win 11.5 for $100,000 In Guthrie
He finally did it. Barry Berg – who has overseen for nearly 30 years the production of millions of Cactus Ropes – has had callbacks three different times to win the coveted six-figure prize in Reno’s original Invitational #11 roping. On June 22, he and Dustin Noblitt, the president of Cactus’ parent company, personally roped their way to the $100,000 win on the 25th anniversary of the Wrangler National Patriot 11.5.
“This is the fairest, friendliest place to rope four steers that you can imagine,” said Berg of Pleasanton, Texas. He and Noblitt had a three-second lead on the rest of the pack as high callback. They finished strong and clean anyway, to take the win by six seconds over Colorado rodeo veterans and best friends Dwight Arnold and Chris Glover, who earned $50,000.
Noblitt rode his good mare that he shares with his daughter, a breakaway roper at Cal Poly. His previous biggest cash win had been a $35,000 payday with Shannon Jones in Las Vegas one year. Meanwhile, Berg, whose horse is 20, declared he’d give the money to his wife for staying supportive of him for nearly 20 years.
“I’m just thankful the organizers of the BFI decided to make this happen; for them to remake this event here in Oklahoma and for the Lazy E to open their doors and let us participate,” said Noblitt of Solvang, California. “The stands here were full yesterday.”
Pro Equine Group and its sister company, Hatco, support the Western industry through brands like Heel-O-Matic, Cactus Saddlery, and Resistol, each a longtime sponsor not only of the Bob Feist Invitational for the pros (held June 21), but also of the Wrangler National Patriot. Founded as the Reno Rodeo Invitational in 1996 by Nevada real estate developer Perry Di Loreto, the roping was designed to give equally matched amateur ropers across the country a chance at six-figure payouts using handicaps similar to golf. It was held for the first time this year in the Lazy E Arena after the pandemic-forced closure of its usual venue in Reno, Nevada.
The coronavirus also halted manufacturing within Pro Equine Group, as Cactus went from making a thousand ropes per day to a hundred.
“We have 560 employees, but we’re still a family,” said Noblitt. “So we kept paying all our people and did what we had to do. Luckily, our production is in Texas, one of the first states to get fired back up. And luckily for us, our people love what they do and were willing to decline assistance and come back to work.”
Ironically, Berg said the forced corporate shutdown due to COVID19 the past couple of months allowed more personal testing of Cactus’ latest rope, The Future, and his big win is a result of the fine-tuning of that rope. Plus, Noblitt said he was able to practice more in the past two months than he had in two years. BFI producers showered the partners with champagne as they stepped on stage to accept awards, many of which were donated by Pro Equine Group.
“The industry has been good to us and we want to give back as much as anybody,” said Berg. “Thank God we’re in the cowboy industry.”
Both ropers also thanked Pro Equine Group founder Dennis Carroll, with whom Berg roped at the very first edition of the Reno roping in ’96.
“He’s been nothing but generous to the whole industry,” said Noblitt. “He’s changed my life and Barry’s life. He doesn’t get enough credit. But he never wanted any.”
For Arnold and Glover, high-school rodeo partners in the 1970s, the big reserve championship capped off a fun recent reunion. Arnold, 62, had placed at the BFI one year with Mark Kersting, back when he was going to more than a dozen Mountain States Circuit Finals Rodeos. But he had quit roping for around 15 years to “try to get ahead.” Glover of Brighton, a three-time NFR qualifier in steer roping, said they’ve been just like kids again since Arnold moved back to neighboring Hudson.
“Dwight ropes so good and scores so good and rides such a good horse,” said Glover, who turned 60 this year and started tying on. “He makes it so easy that I’ve really enjoyed heeling – I’ve had more fun than I ever had going to the NFR.”
Glover heeled on Crisco, one of his steer-roping horses. Glover can head, heel, rope calves and bust steers on all his horses, including his 2018 AQHA/PRCA Steer Roping Horse of the Year.
Wrangler BFI Week continues through June 24. All events are live-streamed on www.WranglerNetwork.com.

Complete Results from the Wrangler National Patriot #11.5 on June 22:
First Round: 1. Heath Crofford and Andy Baker, 7.30 seconds, $5,000; 2. Justin Lankford and Brandon Taylor, 7.35, $3,500; 3. Lee Newman and Keith Coleman, 7.43, $1,500.  Second Round: 1. Colter LaRue and David Walker, 6.92 seconds, $5,000; 2. Tyler Thompson and Chad Davis, 7.18, $3,500; 3. Belo Wiley and Lywayne Bedford, 7.41, $1,500.  Third Round: 1. Coby LittleSoldier and Steve Harrison, 5.95 seconds, $5,000; 2. Wade Woodbury and Kade Elkins, 6.45, $3,500; 3. TJ Good and Alan Chappell, 6.47, $1,500. Short Round (that didn’t place in the average): 1. Jimmy Longino and Danny Watson, 10.29, $3,500; 2. Scot Wheatley and Jeremy Mallette, 14.16, $1,500.  Consolation Aggregate:  1. Raymond Kerr and Spencer Love, 23.15 seconds on three, $7,500; 2. Dennis Engelmann and Scube Waggoner, 23.62, $5,000; 3. Teddy Kreger and Skip Stansbury, 23.97, $3,000.  Aggregate: 1. Barry Berg and Dustin Noblitt, 32.54 seconds on four, $100,000; 2. Dwight Arnold and Chris Glover, 38.70, $50,000; 3. Hannah White and Bryan Caldwell, 38.77, $30,000; 4. Gary Kiehne and Shawn Palmer, 38.86, $18,000; 5. Dylan White and Roberto Torres Jr, 41.40, $14,000; 6. Justin Lankford and Brandon Taylor, 43.35, $12,000; 7. Griffin Scarlett and Ken Matheson, 45.89, $10,600; 8. Clint Threadgill and Louie Molina Jr, 46.74, $9,500; 9. Travis Regensberg and Joaquin Huntington, 47.25, $8,500; 10. Matt Klingeman and Travis Klingeman, 47.76, $8,000.


By Julie Mankin | BFI Press Release