Lavergne’s 86.5-point ride opens Guymon Rodeo with early saddle bronc lead

Wyatt Lavergne turned the first saddle bronc ride of the 2026 Guymon Pioneer Days Rodeo into the night’s biggest jolt, posting 86.5 points on Frontier Rodeo’s Ed Bishop to grab the early lead Friday at Henry C. Hitch Pioneer Arena.

The score mattered because Guymon does not hand out easy leads. In PRCA roughstock events, judges split the score 100 points between the horse and the rider, and an 86.5 in a field packed with nearly 1,000 contestants and more than $275,000 in prize money put Lavergne in position to set the pace while the rest of the rodeo was still ahead.

Ed Bishop added to the weight of the moment. Lavergne said the horse is one seen at the National Finals Rodeo almost every year, and the bronc has been selected to the NFR in both bareback riding and saddle bronc riding. Lavergne said he was grateful for the chance to get on such a horse and felt he and Ed Bishop made a pretty good team.

That is exactly why a ride like this resonates in Guymon. The rodeo, founded in 1933 and later inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame, has long been one of the region’s signature PRCA stops, and its bronc riding carries the name of Craig Latham, one of the Oklahoma Panhandle’s best-known cowboys. Guymon formally renamed the specialty event the Craig Latham Memorial Saddle Bronc Riding in 2023, honoring a nine-time National Finals Rodeo qualifier and the 1988 Resistol Rookie of the Year.

Friday’s opener was part of a May 1-3 schedule, with Pink Night marking the first performance at 7:30 p.m. The Chamber of Commerce says Pioneer Days is a city-wide and community-wide festival built around the rodeo, with a parade, carnival, mercantile craft show, 5K run and walk, rodeo queen crowning, trail rides, golf tournament and mutton bustin’.

Lavergne said the weather was ideal for bronc riding, with temperatures falling into the 50s, and he praised both the atmosphere and the quality of the riders on hand. He now has to wait for the final performances to see where he finishes, but his first trip to the Oklahoma Panhandle already paid off in a way Guymon fans will remember.