The opening round of the 2026 Cinch Timed Event Championship kicked off Thursday night at the legendary Lazy E Arena with a battle in the Ironman race, as Seth Hall (Albuquerque, New Mexico) captured the Round One win and took the early lead in the overall average.
All event results are available here.
Hall delivered one of the most consistent runs of the night, stopping the clock in 9.7 seconds in heading, 13.4 seconds in tie-down roping, 9.0 seconds in heeling, 10.8 seconds in steer wrestling, and 22.7 seconds in steer roping. His combined time of 65.6 seconds secured the Round 1 victory and the early lead in the average.
“It seems like the bulldogging and the tripping’s gonna be a little tricky,” said Hall. “But from what I see is that we have a dang great field of guys, and there’s some that have never been here. And those guys will battle back. I’ve been in those situations before. I’m just glad to get five under my belt and start for a good day tomorrow.”
Coleman Proctor (Pryor, Oklahoma) and Wesley Thorp (Stephenville, Texas) tied for the fastest time in the heading with runs of 8.1 seconds. Dylan Hancock (San Angelo, Texas) locked in the top tie-down roping time of 11.7 seconds. The fastest heeling time of the round was shared by Ketch Kelton (Mayer, Arizona) and Russell Cardoza (Terrebonne, Oregon) with runs of 6.6 seconds. Stetson Jorgensen (Blackfoot, Idaho) posted the top steer wrestling time with a 5.7-second run, while Taylor Santos (Creston, California) recorded the fastest steer roping time of the round with a 6.4-second run.
Close behind Hall in the overall standings are Taylor Santos with a total time of 69.8 seconds and Ketch Kelton with 73.6 seconds, keeping the race for the championship tight as the competition progresses.
After round one, Leo Loucks (Pittsburg, Illinois) leads the Junior Ironman race by more than 36 seconds with a combined time of 49.8 seconds on four heads.
Loucks started his Ironman run with a 15.6-second tie-down roping time before turning in a 12.8-second run in the heading. He followed that with a 12.4-second heeling run and capped the round with a 9.0-second steer wrestling time. The four consistent runs put Loucks at the top of the leaderboard with a 49.8-second total heading into the next round on March 6.
James Mann sits second in the Junior Ironman standings after Round One with a total time of 87.4 seconds on four head. Mann turned in a 27.0-second run in the heading, followed by a 15.0 in the heeling. He added a 35.1-second steer wrestling run and a solid 10.3-second time in the tie-down roping to keep himself within reach of the lead heading into the next round.
All event results are available here.
Competition continues on March 6 with Rounds 2 and 3. Five competitors will be eliminated after Round 2, and five more will be cut following Round 4 on March 7. The remaining 15 competitors will advance to the Championship Round on Saturday night, March 7, where they will go head-to-head for the $100,000 grand prize.
