Nearly $250,000 Awarded on Night One of Kimes Million Dollar Breakaway

The 25 best breakaway ropers took to the arena dirt in Scottsdale, Ariz. on night one of the Kimes Million Dollar Breakaway.

Jackie Crawford / Hillary Maybery for Rodeo on SI

Thousands of runs have been made on the journey to night one of the Kimes Million Dollar Breakaway. Ropers entered qualifiers with a dream in mind - to take a chance on competing for a $1 million prize purse in Scottsdale, Ariz. at Westworld over Thanksgiving weekend.

The field was narrowed to 25 talented ladies who would back in the box for at least the first six rounds. After round six, the list will be narrowed to just 15 who will move on to the last four rounds.

Thanksgiving evening kicked off the first three of ten rounds. This competition offers the biggest payout seen to breakaway ropers - ever. It casts a pretty big shadow on even the National Finals Breakaway Roping as the payout in Scottsdale is $1 million while the NFBR will award $300,000 in total.

After each round, you could see the excitement in the ropers faces as they realized that by winning the round, they had just deposited $25,000 into their bank account.

Hali Williams, the No. 12 ranked roper in the Women's Professional Rodeo Association put some perspective on the situation. Given that she is the daughter of 8-time World Champion Speed Williams, the family understands rodeo. Speed made the National Finals Rodeo 12 times and won the average once. He has over $2 million in professional earnings and who knows how much at other ropings across the country.

"My dad called and told me that I was roping for more money at this roping than he ever roped for during any of his World Championships," Hali said.

"That's exciting. This is exciting. It is amazing to be able to rope on this level with this kind of competition and win this amount of money."

Here are the winners of rounds one through three:

Round One:
1. Kash Gay/2.06/$25,000
2. Shelby Boisjoli-Meged/2.26/$20,000
3. Hali Williams/2.28/$15,000
4. Reese Jacobs/2.42/$10,000
5. Josie Connor/2.49/$7,500
6. Grace Felton/2.65/$5,000

Round Two:
1. Hali Williams/2.01/$25,000
2. Martha Angelone/2.12/$20,000
3. Danielle Lowman/2.28/$15,000
4. Josie Connor/2.30/$10,000
5. Maddy Deerman/2.39/$7,500
6. Kelsie Domer/2.65/$5,000

Round Three:
1. Kash Gay/1.90/$25,000
2. Kayla Graham/1.99/$20,000
3. Jordi Edens/2.12/$15,000
4. Josie Conner/2.16/$10,000
5. Kelsie Domer/2.20/$7,500
6. Hali Williams/2.21/$5,000

After just the first three rounds, Kash Gay from Plain City, Utah definitely claimed her well-deserved part of the nearly $250,000 awarded on night one. Just like her name indicates, she colleced the cash. She won round one and then came back to win round three as well - a smooth $50,000 worth of work in just a total of 3.96 seconds.

Hali Williams, the Comanche, Texas lady won round two for the $25,000 prize, but she also won third in the first round and sixth in round three to collect a total of $45,000 on night one.

Josie Conner from Iowa, Louis. stayed solid all night winning fifth in the first round followed by two fourth place finishes in rounds two and three to deposit $27,500 in her bank account.

When taking a look at the average, Hali Williams leads the way with 6.5-seconds on three followed by Conner who is 6.95 seconds total on three as well. Rickie Fanning, Grace Felton, Kelsie Domer and Shelby Meged round out the top six in the average after all roping three head.