Adding to the Legacy: Cole Eiguren Carries on Family Tradition with Cheyenne All-Around Win

Cole Eiguren won $11,100 between the tie-down and team roping at the 2026 Cheyenne Frontier Days to claim an all-around buckle that he had dreamed about long before he was old enough to compete for one.

The 25-year-old won his tie-down roping bracket, placed second in the semifinals and finished fourth in the finals for $10,100. He added another $1,000 in the team roping with Dylin Ahlstrom, giving him enough across the two events to leave Cheyenne as the all-around champion.

“It’s pretty cool,” the Fruitland, Idaho man said. “I put the buckle on my belt today, so that felt pretty sweet. It is a surreal feeling, for sure. It’s one of them deals where you don’t really have the words for it because you dream about it your whole life.”

For Eiguren, a Cheyenne buckle represents more than one successful week.

His grandfather won five of them, including an all-around buckle for his first Cheyenne title. After his grandfather died, each of his five children received one of the buckles in the order they had been won. Eiguren’s mother, the oldest child, received the first.

“My mom wears that buckle all the time,” he said. “I see it and I’m just like, ‘Gosh dang, that’s such a sweet buckle. I would love to have one.’”

Now he does.

Eiguren entered Cheyenne in both events, something he tries to do whenever possible. Team roping normally takes priority because he has a heeler depending on him, but he qualified for Cheyenne in both and took advantage of the opportunity.

His biggest push toward the all-around title came in the tie-down roping aboard Stoner, an 8-year-old grade red roan gelding Eiguren’s family bought as a colt.

Eiguren and Stoner opened their week by winning Bracket Six with an 11.7-second run for $2,000. Eiguren said the roan’s ability to watch and rate the calves made him an easy pick for Cheyenne’s walking-fresh setup.

“He is good at rating off of watching the cow,” Eiguren said. “He’s not going to run in blind and run him over like typically some horses will. That’s why I chose to ride him here. He made it easy, the calf was good and I got a really good go.”

The bracket win moved Eiguren into the semifinals, where he ran one in 11.1 seconds to finish second behind Cory Solomon and collect another $2,500.

He followed the same plan in each round: set up his run, rope the neck sharp and let Stoner to do his job.

By the finals, however, the pace had sped up. Britt Bedke had taken the lead with a 10.3, Macon Murphy had been 10.5 and Solomon had turned in a 10.7 before Eiguren backed in the box.

“I was just kind of like, ‘I’m going to ride the barrier—not tight, but I’m not going to want to be late—and I’m going to be as aggressive as I can,’” Eiguren said.

Eiguren answered with an 11.0-second run, placing fourth for $5,600. He put a wrap and a hooey in the finals after using two wraps earlier in the week.

“I had a little more urgency in the short round,” Eiguren said. “The run I made felt really good. It ended up winning fourth, but it worked out. We got out of there with a good chunk of money and ended up winning the all-around.”

The week also served as a measure of redemption after Eiguren tore his MCL while helping tie the calves before Cheyenne’s semifinals in 2025. The Justin Sports Medicine crew taped his knee, and he still competed, but the injury limited what he could do on the ground.

This time, Eiguren stayed healthy and advanced all the way through the finals.

His team roping played more of a supporting role in his all-around win. Eiguren and Ahlstrom missed moving straight into the semifinals but returned through the wildcard, where their 8.1-second run placed third and earned them $1,000 apiece.

In the semifinals, Eiguren broke the barrier and Ahlstrom got a leg, leaving them with a 23.7 and out of the finals.

• Full 2026 Cheyenne Frontier Days Results

“I don’t look at it as he caught a leg,” Eiguren said. “I look at it as I broke the barrier.”

Despite the team roping, the wildcard money combined with Eiguren’s tie-down earnings was enough to secure the all-around championship.

Eiguren’s wife is due with their first child in October, adding another layer of meaning to a buckle already connected to generations of his family. Their daughter will be born in the same year Eiguren won his first Cheyenne buckle.

“It makes me think that’s going to be her buckle one day,” Eiguren said. “Whether that’s because I win some more Cheyenne buckles or whether that’s because one day, when I pass on, she gets that buckle. I think it’s really neat.

“It’ll be the buckle from the same year that she’s born, too, which is cool.”