Nacho man

Victoria Sun

Thursday, Dec. 13, 2001 | 9:43 a.m.

They partnered up on a hunch and it's paying off faster than they could have ever predicted.

Now, longtime friends Blaine Linaweaver and Jory Levy are showing the rodeo world what they've known all along -- they are worthy of competing with the best.

Linaweaver (heading) and Levy (heeling) finished fifth in team roping in the sixth go-round of the National Finals Rodeo Wednesday night at the Thomas & Mack Center.

The 26-year-olds teamed up last November and both cowboys are making their first appearance at the finals.

"It's the most exciting thing that we've ever been to," Linaweaver said. "We've figured out why you rodeo so hard all year long to get here, because it's an amazing rodeo."

Linaweaver and Levy failed to place in the first go-round, the result of a few mistakes and Linaweaver's horse, Nacho, getting sick. But they won the second performance with a time of 4.5 seconds and have placed in each go-round since.

Linaweaver adjusted quickly to another horse, Tango, but said he is happy to have Nacho back for tonight's seventh performance.

Their fifth-place finish earned them $3,489.60 and kept them second in the NFR average with a total time of 47.90 seconds on six runs. Travis Tryan (heading) and Matt Robertson (heeling) won their second go-round of the finals with a time of 4.40 seconds.

The team of Richard Eiguren (heading) and B.J. Campbell (heeling) remain first in the world standings at $122,351.32 each.

Linaweaver and Levy are now eighth in the world standings with $77,286.66 each, a statistic that both cowboys have tried to ignore.

"Honestly, I have no clue where we're at," Linaweaver said. "We kind of don't keep up on that. We think it's 10 different rodeos and it will all come out at the end."

The duo's approach was not always so happy-go-lucky.

Early in the year, Linaweaver and Levy weren't winning and were running out of money -- fast.

"We had major trouble," Linaweaver said. "I mean, we couldn't catch a barrel putting a rope on it."

Faced with the prospect of having to pack up and go home, they overcame their dire situation and set a Pro Rodeo Cowboys Association record for fastest time at the San Angelo (Texas) Rodeo in March. Linaweaver and Levy were clocked at 3.5 seconds, breaking the old record of 3.7 seconds.

"Since we've made that run, it's been unbelievable," Levy said. "The situation was perfect.

"Blaine ropes very aggressive and our steer was just set up perfect. Blaine got it on his horns great and just gave me a jelly-roll so I could set something in front of his feet.

"We both knew we could rope very well, but at the time we weren't roping up to our potential and we weren't drawing the steers to let us rope to our potential. It gave us so much more confidence to know we can actually do it and then we made it here."

Linaweaver, of Leavenworth, Kansas and Levy, of Twin Oaks, Okla., met through high school rodeo and amateur rodeo competitions.

Linaweaver joined the PRCA in 1997 and Levy signed on last year.

Two years ago, they were teamed with other cowboys when they figured they'd be crazy not to join up, so they became a team last November.

"It's kind of like a marriage with a brotherhood," Linaweaver said. "We travel together and practice together.

"We get along great and our roping styles fit perfectly, I think."