Tyler Tryan and Levi Lord stomped on the gas straight out of the starting blocks at the 49th annual Bob Feist Invitational Team Roping Classic yesterday, and kept their feet on that floorboard start to finish to take the win in dominating fashion. I’ve never seen anything quite like it, and I’ve now watched over 40 of the 49 runnings of this OG of open ropings.
Tryan, 20, and Lord, 30, took the opening round by nearly a second in 5.45, and never relinquished their lead. They ran down six steers in the massive Lazy E Arena in 42.21 seconds, and were rewarded the kings’ ransom of $160,000—$80 grand a man—for their hard day’s work. Their margin of victory over the field was an unusually wide 4.53 seconds over reserve champs Brye Crites and Ross Ashford’s 46.74.
“I have a lot of sweet childhood memories watching my dad rope at the BFI back in Reno, and the first couple ropings here at the Lazy E (in Guthrie, Oklahoma),” Tyler said. “The BFI’s always been the most prestigious roping, and a favorite in my family growing up.
“This was my third year entering this roping. The first year I roped with Jade (Corkill), but I wasn’t ready and didn’t do a very good job. Last year, I missed the fifth steer for Denton Dunning to be high call. You’ve just got to learn from your mistakes, and go on. When I put my name down, I believe I’m going to win. With this horse and this partner, I knew if I did my job I had a great chance.”
This is the same kid who won almost $80,000 as a rookie two years ago to take 2024 Resistol Rookie Header of the Year honors by almost double the earnings of the reserve rookie, who happened to be Korbin Rice. Rice just won RodeoHouston heading for Cooper Freeman to take the world standings lead, so they’re now looking forward to a Rookie Class of 2024 roping reunion at the 2026 NFR.
Tryan’s game plan on getting there is no different than the BFI strategy that just added $80,000 to his bank account.
“I wanted to be aggressive all day,” he said. “I got a couple starts that were better than I wanted them to be, but I just wanted to score good and use my rope. You can’t really lay off these days, because so many guys rope so good. We drew incredible all day. We didn’t draw a bad steer. That (small-horned black) steer in the short round ran, but that yellow horse of mine is so free-wheeling that it’s really easy to get the neck on him.”
Tryan lives in Lipan, Texas, and Lord in Mineral Wells. Feels funny to call a 30-year-old the veteran on any team, but that’s the case with these two. Lord’s now roped at five Wrangler National Finals Rodeos, and is closing in on $1.5 million in career earnings. This was his eighth BFI, but his first check in the average.
“The BFI is a mental battle all day,” Lord said. “I was just following this guy. Tyler is super aggressive. That’s his game, and he stuck to it. He has no fear. Tyler’s a first-place roper, and it showed again today.”
Tyler’s a double-bred roping and rodeo royal on both three-time Champ of the World dad Clay’s Tryan side of the family tree and mom Bobbie’s Robertson branch. Clay’s won the BFI three times—with Patrick Smith in 2005, Walt Woodard in 2008 and Travis Graves in 2012—and won second in Round 4 at this year’s BFI heading for Tyler’s little brother Braylon with a blazing 5.32-second run. Fact is, with $260,361, Clay is the winningest BFI roper of all time. Dad’s still got it, and he’s taught his sons well, too.
“Tyler has a lot of range, and he’s not afraid to use it from steer one,” Lord said. “He has a really fast horse, too, and that makes him hard to beat.”
The team of Tryan and Lord just started roping this winter. They’re ranked 20th and 23rd in the world heading and heeling standings, respectively, right now. But here comes a cowboy plot twist: The Clovis (California) Rodeo the third week in April will be their last.
Tyler will next head for 2025 Resistol Rookie Heeler of the Year Nicky Northcott, who’s 19 and won over $111,000 last year to finish 16th in the world. Lord is still considering his options, and hasn’t yet committed to his next move. But make no mistake, there is much mutual respect between these two ropers.
“This was our last big roping together, so it felt good to get the win,” Tyler said. “Levi’s been a great partner to me, and it’s been great roping with someone who knows the sport so well. He’s taught me so much, and he heeled incredible today. He never took a bad shot, and he heeled steers fast. There was never any doubt at his end.”
With the cowboy conditions of fresh, strong steers over a 21-foot score at the Lazy E, the four-legged partners also play a big part in BFI success.
Tryan rode his 10-year-old palomino Butters (whose AQHA-registered name is Cowboys Famous Guy) to the BFI winner’s circle.
“Butters had everything to do with this win,” Tyler said. “Without him, so many of the wins I’ve had wouldn’t have been possible. He scores, he’s fast and he lets me rope the horns—from three coils back or half a coil, whatever I want to do. This horse has been this good since I got him when I was 17, and he’s my No. 1 jackpot horse by far. I love him.”
Tryan considers his buckskin Dan to be his first-string rodeo horse, but says Butters can’t be beat over long scores the likes of the BFI and California Rodeo Salinas. He also planned to ride Butters at rodeo in San Angelo today (Monday, March 30), the morning after conquering the marathon BFI mountain.
Tryan also rode Butters to win Saturday’s Hooey Junior BFI Open and another $35,000 with Denton Dunning—it was each cowboy’s third victory strike at the Junior BFI as they close out that youth chapter of their young careers. Tyler won another $3,000 on the day with round money won with brother Braylon and Northcott to bring his weekend total to a whopping $118,000.
Lord rode his familiar faithful Little Black. San Jo Deacon is 17 now, and he’s ridden him a little over a year.
“The best thing he does is he can really run, and he’s really cowy,” said South Dakota native Levi. “He’s got speed, but he’s always hunting the steer, so he’s never out of control.
“Horsepower is everything for us, especially here. Without these horses, we can’t do anything. Little Black really fits this roping, and he was a huge part of this win. He’s just so fast on these running steers over this long score, and he never hurts you. He definitely made my job easy today. Both of the horses we rode today deserve a lot of the credit.”
For going wire-to-wire with this win, neither Tryan nor Lord watched much of the roping. Tyler rode into the arena about 12 teams before they were up each round, roped and rode out.
“In between runs, I sat by myself and asked the Lord for calmness in my heart and mind,” Levi said. “It’s easy to start thinking about all the money at stake, or what if things went wrong. A guy just needs to focus on roping, maintain peace of mind and expect good things to happen. And if it’s meant to be, it will happen. When you rope for a living, this really is life changing. There aren’t many places you can win this kind of money in one place. Winning the BFI is a huge blessing.”
Lord and his fiancée, Baileigh Baker, are getting married this fall. They’ve been busy working on their place in Mineral Wells, so this windfall win is perfectly timed. Tryan’s first two thoughts were buying another horse and/or some land. As he put it, “You can do a lot of things with this kind of money.”
This kid could have done a lot of things with a roping heartbreak he had four years ago, too, including throw in the towel on his roping career altogether. When Tyler was 16 and had just switched sides from heeling to heading, he lost his right thumb to a heading mishap and lost over a year of his career to surgeries and recovery. In his case, the time on the sidelines made him crave it even more.
“So many people on both sides of my family have helped me so much with every aspect of my career,” he said. “We have a lot of great ropers in our family, and it’s special to be a part of that. I spent a lot of time with my dad here today, and once we got a pretty big lead on three, he just told me to rope my roping, be smart, get out of the barrier and catch the steer. It’s very cool to follow in his footsteps.”
There are some special awards at the BFI that make the day memorable for more than just the winning team. Clay Smith and Coleby Payne, who are in the process of rekindling their rodeo partnership, won the Rickey Green Fast Time Award and the Kerry Kelley spurs that come with it for their 5.10 winner in Round 5.
Head Horse of the 2026 BFI honors went to Greenberg Lane and Livestock’s buckskin Louie (Shiners Stylish Nic is 10), who was ridden by Shay Carroll in the last five rounds and is a three-quarters brother to the horse he’s been rodeoing on that he rode in Round 1. Douglas Rich’s 8-year-old bay Smack (Right Back Gunnin), who was just added to Rich’s remuda in January, took Heel Horse of the BFI honors.
“The BFI has kept the history going, everybody looks forward to it every year and it’s the most prestigious roping of all time,” Tryan said. “Winning the BFI is, without a doubt, at the top of my list. It’s No. 1. You only get one chance a year to win it, and it’s hard to win. You have to rope good and ride good horses, and a lot of great ropers haven’t won it yet.
“I knew riding in to rope that last steer that if I scored good and got him caught, we had some time to play with. If I did my job, it was going to be over, because I have faith in Levi all day long. I’m just glad it was our day. My next goal is to make the NFR with Nicky, and be a world champion one day.”
“The BFI is the pinnacle of jackpot team roping,” added Lord. “You know the challenge you’re getting into when you come to the BFI, and it’s a test. The people who put this on have turned the BFI into a whole new weeklong monster since moving it here to the Lazy E. The BFI is where this sport all started, and we all grew up watching the tapes of our heroes roping here. So much goes into winning this thing—it’s a long day with six steers and a long wait between runs. To come through that and get the win is super special.
“This is the most I’ve ever won in one day. Winning Houston when I was really young kickstarted my career, but conquering this BFI challenge against so many great ropers means the world. To be blessed enough to make it through this day is just unbelievable. I’ve been struggling a little bit, so I needed a big win. I had to lean on my faith to get through this 10-hour grind, but I’ll never forget this feeling. When the money’s gone, I’ll get to remember what it feels like to go into BFI battle—me and my partner against the world—and come out on top. This was one overwhelming day, and I’ll never forget it.”