Staff

The pair of Kaitlyn Torres and Michael Calmelat captured the Junior World Championship in open team roping Wednesday, Dec.11 in Las Vegas. Prior to this accolade, they had never teamed up to rope. 

According to the world finals blog with Jack Nowlin, the 17-year-old Torres of Alice and the 16-year-old Calmelat from Tucson, Arizona were in sync when she made a clean catch and turned the steer then he roped both feet at 5.60 to place fourth in the first round.  

Both had an 8.28 time in the second round Tuesday, Dec. 10 and then a 5.95 the following day to move up the leaderboard. 

In the short go, they went 19.83 on three runs and stopped the clock in 5.87 seconds to win it with a time of 25.70 seconds on four head. 

This was the first Junior World Finals for Torres. Both Kaityn and Michael got checks for the average title as well as winning saddles, title buckles, ropes, hats and more.