Events: Team Roping (Headers)
Born: 5/7/1979 Plentywood, Mont.
Joined PRCA: 1998
PRCA Career Earnings: $1,429,575.00
World Titles Won: 1 (2005)
WNFR Qualifications:10 (2001-07, 2009-11)
Current Residence: Billings, Mont.

2011 World standings place: 2nd
2011 Wrangler NFR place: 3rd
2011 Wrangler NFR earnings: $72,981
2011 earnings: $189,649
Wrangler NFR average titles: 1 (2004)
Tour Finale titles: 2
Winter: 2005
Championship: 2010
Tour Finale qualifications: 15
Winter: 2004, 2005-06
Summer: 2001-06
Championship: 2004-07, 2009-10
DNCFR qualifications: 1 (1999)

Professional
2011 Highlights – partner Travis Graves
• Placed in four rounds at the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo
• Won the National Western Stock Show & Rodeo (Denver)
• Won the Ellensburg (Wash.) Rodeo
• Won the Lea County Fair & PRCA Rodeo (Lovington, N.M.)
• Won the Lewiston (Idaho) Roundup
• Won the Lynden (Wash.) PRCA Rodeo
• Won the SandHills Stock Show & Rodeo (Odessa, Texas)
• Won the Red Bluff (Calif.) Round-Up
• Won the Cassia County Fair & Rodeo (Burley, Idaho)

Career Highlights
• 2010: (Partner Travis Graves) Placed in five rounds of the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, including a win in Round 9 with a time of 4.2 seconds. Finished second in the world standings with $184,739. With wins in Omaha, Neb., and Puyallup, Wash., broke the regular-season earnings record for team roping headers previously held by Chad Masters; Tryan ($146,608) surpassed Masters’ mark of $127,749 set in 2009. Won the Justin Boots Championships (Omaha, Neb.); Tryan and Graves won the most championship money of anyone in Omaha, collecting $34,955 each. Won the Black Hills Stock Show & Rodeo (Rapid City, S.D.); the Pikes Peak or Bust Rodeo Days (Colorado Springs, Colo.); the Sisters (Ore.) Rodeo; Rodeo de Santa Fe (N.M.); the Cassia County Fair & Rodeo (Burley, Idaho) and the Othello (Wash.) PRCA Rodeo
• 2009: (Partner Cory Petska) Placed in four rounds of the Wrangler NFR, including second place results in Rounds 3 and 8. Won California Rodeo Salinas; the Lewiston (Idaho) Roundup and the North Idaho Fair & Rodeo (Coeur d’Alene, Idaho). Finished 11th in the world standings with earnings of $106,810
• 2008: (Partner Walt Woodard) Won the Days of ’47 Rodeo (Salt Lake City); Rodeo de Santa Fe (N.M.) and the Strathmore (Alberta) Heritage Days. Finished 18th in the world standings with earnings of $51,129
• 2007: (Partner Walt Woodard) Won Round 3 of the Wrangler NFR and placed in six rounds overall to earn $94,487, an event high, and was third in the average. Finished second in the PRCA World Standings to Chad Masters by just $2,683, while partner Walt Woodard won the gold buckle for heelers. Won the Days of ’47 Rodeo (Salt Lake City, Utah) and California Rodeo Salinas; co-champion at the West of the Pecos Rodeo (Pecos, Texas) and the 4th of July Celebration & Rodeo (Window Rock, Ariz.). Won the Daines Ranch Rodeo (Innisfail, Alberta), with John Robertson
• 2006: (Partner Patrick Smith) Won California Rodeo Salinas; the Snake River Stampede (Nampa, Idaho); the Central Wyoming Fair & Rodeo (Casper, Wyo.); the Walker County Fair and Rodeo (Huntsville, Texas) and the Fort Worth (Texas) Stock Show & Rodeo
• 2005: (Partner Patrick Smith) Won his first world title, setting a Wrangler NFR record and tying the then-PRCA world record with a 3.5-second run in the ninth round. Also won the third round with a 4.0-second run and the fourth round in 4.4 seconds; finished the year with $167,204. Won the Walla Walla (Wash.) Fair & Frontier Days; the Kitsap County Fair & Stampede (Bremerton, Wash.); the Moses Lake (Wash.) Roundup; the Wrangler ProRodeo Tour Round at the Ellensburg (Wash.) Rodeo, the Tour Round and average titles at the Greeley (Colo.) Independence Stampede and the San Antonio (Texas) Stock Show and Rodeo. Won the Winter Tour Finale and $18,000. Also qualified for the Tour Championships (Dallas)
• 2004: (Partner Michael Jones) Won the Wrangler NFR average title with a time of 77.8 seconds on 10 head. Set the then-arena record with a 3.7-second run in Round 7 and set a Wrangler NFR earnings record in team roping with $95,102. Also won Round 6 with a 3.9-second run and placed in four additional rounds. Moved from 11th in the world standings to second with $144,445. Won California
Rodeo Salinas and the Ellensburg (Wash.) Rodeo, with Cory Petska; semifinalist at the Summer Tour Finale (Omaha, Neb.), with Cory Petska
• 2003: Won California Rodeo Salinas and the Heart O’ Texas Fair & Rodeo (Waco), with Allen Bach; won the American Royal Rodeo (Kansas City), with Cory Petska; finished 12th in the world standings with $71,464
• 2002: (Partner Caleb Twisselman) Qualified for the Olympic Command Performance Rodeo (Farmington, Utah); won the Sisters (Ore.) Rodeo; the Snake River Stampede (Nampa, Idaho) and the Heart O’ Texas Fair & Rodeo (Waco); finished 13th in the world
• 2001: (Partner Caleb Twisselman) Runner-up at the Tour Championships (Dallas). Won the Walla Walla (Wash.) Fair & Frontier Days and the Black Hills Stock Show & Rodeo (Rapid City, S.D.); co-champion at Central Wyoming Fair & Rodeo (Casper) and La Fiesta de los Vaqueros (Tucson, Ariz.)

Awards
Horse Dockalickin “Thumper” finished in a tie for third in the PRCA/AQHA Team Roping Head Horse of the Year race in 2006 and Bears Cash Partner “Syndicate” finished third in 2010

Personal
5-11, 170 … Wife, Bobbie; sons, Tyler (born February 2006) and Braylon (born December 2007) … Brothers Travis and Brady, and father, Dennis, are all team ropers; Dennis was the first Montana team roper to qualify for the NFR, in 1984 … Mother, Terri Kaye Kirkland, competes in barrel racing. At the 2003 Wrangler NFR, Terri Kaye, Clay and Travis became the first mother-sons combination to qualify in the same year; all three of them made it again in 2004 and 2005 … In 2010, Clay, Travis and Brady became the first set of three brothers to qualify for the Wrangler NFR team roping in the same year …Appeared on ESPN’s Cold Pizza morning show in Las Vegas on Dec. 6, 2005