Tryan and Lord win 49th BFI by 4.5 seconds, split $160K

March Madness wasn’t just UConn hitting a buzzer-beater from the logo to beat Duke. It was also 20-year-old Tyler Tryan letting it all hang out on March 29 to go 5.4 with Levi Lord in Round One of the 49^th Bob Feist Invitational, held in Guthrie’s Lazy E Arena.

The pair amassed an unheard-of four-second cushion at high callback over defending back-to-back BFI champs Kaleb Driggers and Junior Nogueira to win the BFI and split $150,000 – just after they decided to stop roping together. Tryan and Lord’s 42.21-second aggregate time over six rounds was the third-fastest in BFI history (plus they won that first round and placed in another for an extra $10,000). The reserve champs, Brye Crites and Ross Ashford, split a cool $85,000 and picked up Lazy L saddles, B&W hitches, Justin Boots and Best Ever pads.

“I’ve never even made the short round at the BFI,” said Lord, a 12-year veteran of the sport and five-time NFR heeler raised in South Dakota. “That’s the most money I’ve ever won in a single day. On top of that, the BFI is just the pinnacle of team roping – it’s the best one and the hardest one to win.”

The BFI is virtually the only place the world’s best ropers can play for 100 percent payback of their entry fees, and it’s still awarding life-changing money as it approaches the 50-year mark. But contenders have to get through six long rounds with just one partner and a monster 21-foot head start for fresh cattle.

While Lord, 30, took home $80,000 cash and his half of the extensive BFI prizeline – Gist buckles, Yeti backpacks, Coats saddles, B&W trailer hitches, Best Ever pads, Turtlebox speakers, Resistol hats and Equinety – Tryan added his fat paycheck to the $38,000 he earned a day earlier. That was for winning his second-straight Hooey Jr. BFI championship with Denton Dunning and placing in go-rounds with two other partners. Tryan banked $118,000 total at the Lazy E Arena over the two days.

His mom, Bobbie, wasn’t in Guthrie to watch Tyler nor her husband Clay rope with their middle son Braylon. She was home in Lipan, Texas, taking their youngest, 12-year-old Dash, to baseball tournaments. But she and Clay were no doubt even prouder knowing what Tyler overcame a few years ago. Just after switching from heeling to heading at 16, he cut his thumb off and wasn’t able to swing a rope again for a year and a half.

“I think it made me want to rope more – setting there and watching for so long,” said Tyler, who went on to win Resistol Rookie Header of the Year and finish the ’25 season ranked in the Top 20. “It made me realize you can overcome anything if you truly work at it, and hopefully this will inspire some people who lose their thumbs. I couldn’t rope for so long that I didn’t remember how I did it before. I struggled at the beginning.”

There was no sign of struggle for this pair in Guthrie over the nine-plus hours of roping. Tryan and Lord didn’t talk to each other much at all, nor eat any food. Tryan sat on the fence with his dad, watching, while Lord mostly stayed out at his stall, keeping to himself.

“You spend a little time leaning into your faith a little bit, you know?” said Lord. “I asked Him to clear my mind and help me expect good things to happen.”

Every time they rode into the boxes, Driggers and Nogueira had listened to announcers talk about their potential to three-peat. Nogueira uncharacteristically lost his rope on the final steer, but it hadn’t mattered for first – Tryan and Lord just needed a clean run.

“Everyone at the BFI likes to be safe and swing over steers,” said Lord, who will use his windfall to help build his new place in Mineral Wells, Texas, and fund an autumn wedding to his fiancé Baileigh. “But that’s not Tyler’s game.”

In fact, Tryan had laid out his strategy at the beginning of the roping – no being safe.

“I told Levi the BFI is so prestigious, it’s one where you want to win first,” said Tryan. “And if you’re going to win it, you might as well put yourself in position to have that chance.”

So, they made that scorching five-second run in the first round, then found themselves 12-on-two, and even placed in the third round before they let off the gas.

“His dad has that killer instinct, too, to just step on your throat,” said Lord of three-time world champion and three-time BFI champion Clay Tryan. “If Tyler can win a roping by five seconds, he’d just as soon do that. That’s how they’re built.”

Because of antics like Tryan’s and the fact that crossfire is legal, the Rickey Green Fast Time award at the BFI gets tougher every year. Throughout runs made by just over 100 teams, the fastest of the day was Clay Smith and Coleby Payne, who clocked a 5.10 to win the fifth round. They earned a place in history plus commemorative plaques and custom Kerry Kelley bits.

And rope-horse owners are hard-pressed to receive a bigger accolade than the Horse of the BFI bronzes by Lost Prairie, which are awarded on each end along with $1,000 cash bonuses, plus nice leather binders, Classic horse blankets, and Equinety.

This year’s best Head Horse of the BFI went to Greenberg Land and Livestock’s 10-year-old buckskin Shiner’s Stylish Nic (“Louie”), ridden by Shay Carroll of Stephenville, Texas, to a top-10 callback at the BFI. But it’s not the same buckskin Carroll had ridden at most of the rodeos – they are three-quarter brothers.

“Steve and Trish Greenberg purchased Louie from Robert and Betty Lou Valdez for me to rodeo on,” said Carroll. “He was trained in heading by Mike Kunzler. I’ve been real happy with how that horse takes pressure. Things weren’t going our way in the BFI, but he kept overcoming everything thrown at him. He does it so pure and with such class.”

The Heel Horse of the BFI award went to Douglas Rich’s 8-year-old bay horse Right Back Gunnin (“Smack”) that he bought in January and rode to the sixth callback.

“He’s a big, powerful horse that worked good on every steer today,” said Rich, who bought him from Colton McCarly of west Texas.

As for this year’s BFI champs, Lord was riding Little Blackie, the horse he’s owned about a year that started with Logan Allen in Iowa, then was owned by Paul Eaves before Lord bought him from a local kid. And Tryan was riding Butters for the second straight day, with no scoring in between to help the palomino gelding adjust to the four-foot-longer head start of the BFI.

“He’s a warrior and tries to give me the best opportunity to win every time,” said Tryan. “That horse won a futurity with Logan Cullen, then went through Kaleb Driggers and Cory Kidd. My dad traded for him a few years ago – he’s made finding good head horses an art form. Thankfully, he let me buy him. I’ve been in love with him ever since.”

Going forward, Tryan said he was glad to get the BFI win off his bucket list, but wants to “keep roping good” so he can focus on the other item on his list.

“I’ve won a few big ropings, but nothing like the BFI,” he said. “It’s the most prestigious thing we go to all year, and getting the win means a lot. Now the goal is to make the NFR.”

Going forward, though, he won’t be rodeoing with Lord. The two will remain partners until May, and are still good friends. Lord said the partnership’s expiration date both added an incentive to take advantage of their time remaining, and allowed him to rope “a little more free” and do his job.