History was made on multiple occasions at Fort Worth’s 2025 Cinch RSNC World Finals, but hallmarking the event was the more than $1.1 million paid out in cash and prizes to the hundreds of contestants competing for World Championship titles.
Gold Shootouts raise the bar
Aiding in the June 7-14 effort, notably, were the Gold Shootouts, which allowed for the single richest day in ranch sorting history when, on the June 12 Finals Night, $300,344 was paid out to teams competing in the Professional’s Choice #9 Gold Shootout, the Cinch #13 Gold Shootout and the Open Shootout.
Minnesota’s brother team of Bronson, 13, and Bodee Kruger, 17, cashed the biggest check of the event when they closed the deal on the Professional’s Choice #9 Gold Shootout with 33 head sorted in 203.93 seconds across four rounds. Their efforts earned them $34,294, a win Bodee celebrated by throwing his hat into the rafters of the John Justin.
“I think I set a record,” he said about his hat throw, but he could have been talking about the team’s paycheck.
The Gold Shootout Finals continued in high-paying fashion with the draw team of Florida’s Alejandro Serpone and Texas’ Kori Haile pulling in $29,960 for their win in the Cinch #13 Gold Shoutout, while Wyoming’s Kris Doornink and Colorado’s Kody Ward cleared a check for $11,250 in the Open Gold Shootout.
“The Gold Shootout Finals opened a whole new level of ranch sorting, giving contestants an opportunity to win unprecedented monies in the sport,” said Cinch RSNC event director Logan Wolfe.
First-ever Youth Finals Night
Speaking of new opportunities and growing the sport, this year’s Cinch RSNC World Finals featured its first-ever Youth Finals Night on June 9, and the evening did not disappoint.
With an enthusiastic crowd cheering from the stands, the 18-and-unders of the Cinch RSNC went to work for their World Championship titles in the #8 Youth and the #18 Rated Youth—a class whose payout increased to $18,440 as a result of the very successful Chrome Cash Pro Futurity Calcutta that raised just shy of $30,000 with 20% committed to the Youth class.
Texan Mandie O’Neil, 15, and soon-to-be 18-year-old Kai Clark, of Georgia, were crowned the 2025 World Champions of the #18 Rated Youth, taking home a winning check of $4,694 in a class that paid down to the eighth hole. Georgia was also well represented in the #8 Youth by Abigail Knight, 12, who joined forces with South Carolina’s almost-13 Annabelle Butler to win $872 in a class that paid its teams down to the fifth hole.
“There were some pretty good teams,” admitted O’Neil who, with Clark, was able to best at least two teams entering the Final Round with a clean 20 head.
Such stiff competition is a clear marker of where the next generation will be taking the sport of ranch sorting.
Challenge of the Champions features top finalists
Each year, Cinch RSNC hosts a year-long battle to determine the top five money-earning ranch sorters across four divisions: Open, Amateur, Novice and Rookie. Then, during a round-robin, sudden-death-style Finals Night tourney, each competitor sorts with the remaining top four in the division. At the end of the night, the ranch sorter with the most cows sorted in his or her division earns a coveted Champion of the Champions title and yearly recognition when the banner with their names is hung over the John Justin Arena during the World Finals.
The Open division brought a collective $223,175 in season earnings into the match, with Joel Lesh—Oklahoma’s half-million-dollar RSNC ranch sorter and reigning Open Champion of the Champions—coming in at the lead with $64,751. Wyoming’s Kris Doornink led the $227,158 Amateur division with a solid $57,724 in season earnings and, in the $162,231 Novice division, Utah’s Mark Rasmussen topped with $41,353. Adding to that the $102,450 Rookie division led by Georgian Harper Grace Pierce’s $29,432, and these top 20 ranch sorters represented about $715,000 in season earnings paid out to competitors ahead of the 2025 Cinch RSNC World Finals.
By the end of the night, Open rider Kody Ward, Amateur Aubree Coker of Florida, Wyoming’s Novice sorter Kara Doornink and South Dakota Rookie Nicki Fuller claimed their 2025 Champion of the Champions titles and their places among the best of the best.
Hall of Fame Night recognizes Top 10 lifetime money earners of the sport
In 2025, the Cinch RSNC World Finals kicked off with an Awards Night that recognized the yearlong and lifetime achievements of its members, including the high-point Western Heritage winners, as well as ranch sorters who’ve reached lifetime earnings milestones like $25,000, $50,000, $75,000 and $100,000.
New this year, however, was the recognition of the ranch sorters who hold court among the Top Ten lifetime Cinch RSNC earners. Because it was the first year of acknowledging these elite achievements, 12 ranch sorters received platinum silver Professional’s Choice belt buckles, as two of the sorters—Tommy Roberson and Brian Buckner—long held rank as the top earners before being bumped out in these most recent years.
The highest earning Cinch RSNC ranch sorters are:
- Joel Lesh; Stillwater, Oklahoma —$538,141.39
- Logan Wolfe; Wellington, Colorado — $454,392.25
- Kason Wolfe; Perrin, Texas — $307,144.24
- Travis Roberson; Burleson, Texas — $288,254.19
- DeRoy White, DVM; Mounds, Oklahoma —$282,056.24
- Larry Newport; Eufaula, Oklahoma —$253,272.73
- Shelley Fitzgerald; Yukon, Oklahoma — $249,530.86
- Dave Schaffner; Goldthwaite, Texas — $247,324.68
- Jessie Wolfe; Wellington, Colorado — $241,135.41
- Bob McPherson; Stevenville, Texas — $239,086.97
- Brian Buckner; Lorena, Texas — $226,395.80
- Tommy Roberson; Arlington, Texas — $224,549.39
Biggest payouts and best production to date
Not only did the Cinch RSNC pay out the most money in ranch sorting’s history, the general hum around this year’s World Finals event suggests it was also the smoothest and most efficient World Finals to date.
“We only went past 9:00 p.m. on one or two nights, and that’s really important to us to give people time to put up their horses, go have dinner and hang out with friends and socialize,” said Wolfe. “That’s a big part of what we want to offer.”
The staff and crew, which Wolfe credits as the best in the ranch sorting business, ran more than 8,000 teams.
“We set the stage for tktktk runs over eight days, and the show ran as smooth as it ever has. That’s big thanks to the entire staff, the best ranch sorting crew in the country. Period.”
The show, of course, goes on, with the Cinch RSNC producing its next ranch sorting in partnership with the Reno Rodeo June 26-28. Contestants can look forward to an equally well-run event that highlights exceptional fun, stiff competition, and rewarding payouts and prize lines.
— H&R —
