BY BRETT NIERENGARTEN
At age 38, Blake Knowles enters the 2020 Wrangler NFR with a chance to have the best finish of his career.
The Oregon cowboy is currently in 11th and has never ended the season in better than ninth position, which he did in 2018.
Knowles has been having one of the best years of his career in every major statical category tracked by the PRCA.
His average time of 5.83 seconds is the best of his career and he also had 19 runs of 4.2 seconds or better; his best all-time despite the COVID-shortened seasoned. He also won more go-rounds (9) than any other year even though he competed in less rodeos.
Overall, Knowles won five rodeos in 2020 including the Dinosaur Roundup in Utah and the Guymon Pioneer Days in Oklahoma. Those two events won him $3,700 and $2,400. Both checks were well-earned as both of his times on his final runs at those two rodeos were stopped at 3.5 seconds or less.
A week before his win in Vernal, Utah, Knowles also won the Big Fork Summer ProRodeo in Montana.
Like many NFR cowboys, Knowles also won big checks at one of the larger winter rodeos. He placed with runs of 3.3 and 3.8 seconds in San Antonio and won more than $7,500 there.
BLAKE KNOWLES - 3.3 SECOND RUN IN SAN ANTONIO
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