Ali Norcutt roped her way to the 2025 Resistol Rookie Roundup breakaway win with smart strategy and a 1.8-second run to top it off, coming away with $3,263 from the event.
The win boosts Norcutt from No. 4 to No. 2 in the Resistol Rookie standings, just $1,340 behind friend and No. 1 roper Brooke Bruner.
The Texas Tech University senior from Fallon, Nevada, said she doesn’t consider herself a gunslinging breakaway roper, but with a 1.8-second win at the Cowtown Coliseum and another at the Rio Grande Valley Livestock Show & Rodeo in Mercedes, Texas, (which paid $5,220) her self perception may be changing.
“I backed into the box and was going to go make the run on the calf that I drew, and I honestly wasn’t expecting to throw that fast, but my shot was right there,” Norcutt said. “I just try to rope the calf wherever I can. Sometimes it’s a 4-second run and sometimes it’s a [1.8].”
The win came on the heels of 4.1 and 2.9-second runs on Friday night and Saturday during the eight-man round, respectively. She did it all riding “Rango,” a 8-year-old gelding sired by CD Diamond and bred by the San Juan Ranch.
“We got him as a 5-year-old from Brad Barkemeyer,” Norcutt said. “I’ve been training him myself—he wasn’t a rope horse when I got him. It’s been a lot of learning for both me and him.”
The effort has been paying off, with Norcutt making the decision to choose 2025 as her ProRodeo rookie year after her Permit Finals win in October.
“I plan to go to go back home for the summer,” Norcutt said. “I live an hour East of Reno, so I’m going to go around the Wilderness Circuit and [North]. Luckily a lot of rodeos are on the West Coast and I don’t have to travel very far. I’ll go every weekend and see what I get done.”
Norcutt thanked Resistol and The Cowboy Channel for hosting the event where she made new connections and friendships.
