Kyan Wilhite tied the Reno Rodeo arena record Sunday night, stopping the clock at 7.2 seconds aboard Smooth As A Powercat, “Jag.”
The run matched the record Scott Kormos set in 2013 and had held ever since. Wilhite backed into the box planning to tie one in six, with no idea what the arena record even was. The Resistol Rookie No. 1 leads the rookie standings by $9,974 with $51,069 won on the year.
“I really don’t even know how to explain it,” Wilhite said. “It felt really good, and I rode in there that night planning on tying one in six, and then 7.2 ended up being extremely fast for that arena. I dang sure didn’t have any idea that that was the arena record by any means, but it’s pretty dang special. I mean, Scott Kormos was a pretty back-in-the-day kind of guy, and for him to be able to have it that long and then me be sharing it with him is pretty special.”
Drawing Right
Jag is the big stopper Wilhite leaned on through his permit year. He’d roped the morning slack on a different horse, then climbed on him for the night perf. Wilhite thought he drew just alright but ended up drawing a better calf than anyone expected.
“She really wasn’t supposed to be that good, honestly,” Wilhite said. “I was really planning on her running and moving off to the left quite a bit, but I really think just absolutely blowing the barrier out really helped her be good. She was good on the ground, but she was sure supposed to run off a lot more than that.”
For a rookie, tying an arena record at a place like Reno means everything.
“It’s dang sure a confidence booster,” Wilhite said. “I mean, I haven’t really been running the best of calves, and then I’ve been roping really, really good, making good runs and just haven’t been winning anything. And then for them to finally run me a good one in there and I capitalize on the opportunity was really helpful for my mentality and mindset. I know I just need to keep hitting the barrier, roping the neck and tying the calf”
The patience is the part Wilhite traces straight back to his decision to spend an extra year on his permit, a choice that had him rodeoing for experience. He finished that 2025 permit season on top of the standings with $58,964 won.
“I made a plan on what I thought that calf was going to be,” Wilhite said. “I was planning on going fast, but I was going to go as fast as she would let me. I wasn’t going to force anything. I wasn’t going to force it on my horse, force it on me, force it on my calf. You don’t have to go tie one in seven every time to get money. You just go rope the calf that they draw you. And if they pay you, they pay you. If they don’t, they don’t. Just keep entering until you get a good one and then go capitalize on it.”
Union Dirt to the Record Book
He learned that lesson the hard way the week before in Union, Oregon, when he ate dirt, literally.
“Rodeo is something else,” Wilhite said. “It’s like, fall on your face one week and then go tie an arena record the next week. You never know what’s going to happen. Even in sports, the best dude in the NFL is going to drop a pass every now and then. I’m still picking Union, Oregon, dirt out of my nostrils.”
Wilhite is hauling with fellow rookie Ace Reese, the two of them entering everything themselves and hauling three head between them—Jag, Highbrow Fatty, “Hub,” and Reese’s paint horse.
“That’s really my support system this year—me and Ace, and obviously my family,” Wilhite said. “It’s been really good. We dang sure got moved around at some rodeos over the Fourth, so it’s going to be some extra driving and stuff, but we’re going to be able to make it all happen.”