No room for weakness -J. B. Mauney tops an outstanding short-go roster

Forty-five riders came to New York City with the intention of winning. Five of them were a perfect four-for-four. But none was better than J.B. Mauney.

The 21-year-old from North Carolina stepped up in the short go and rode Chicken on a Chain for 91.75 to win the event by 1.75 points over Cody Campbell.

In fact, 10 riders entered the championship round three-for-three this weekend.

“This wasn’t a weekend you were squeaking in,” said Clint Adkins, one of the PBR’s in-arena announcers. “If you had a below-average score, you had to hump up and make something happen if you wanted to even sniff the championship round.”

Campbell, competing in Madison Square Garden as an alternate because of an injury to Chris Shivers, took a shot to the head following his third-round dismount. After a thorough examination from Dr. Tandy Freeman and his medical staff, he was able to return.

Mauney and Campbell (88.50) were two of six qualified rides in the short go, with Shane Proctor (91.25) and, as expected, Guilherme Marchi (90.75) coming up big along with Wiley Petersen (88) and Leonil Santos (76.75).

Proctor rode Say I Won’t Gunner while Marchi outmuscled I’m a Gangster and Petersen managed to hold his own against Sir Patrick.

“It was an outstanding long go round,” Adkins said. “Cody Lambert did a superb job of putting the bull pen together, once again. I don’t think Cody gets the credit for doing what he does—putting great pens of bucking bulls together week-in and week-out.”

While Mauney got the event win and moved into second place in the world standings, the story of the weekend had to be that of Campbell, who Adkins said, “stepped up and put on the performance of his career.”

After two events, Kody Lostroh still leads the world by 28.75 points over Mauney. Marchi is in third, but trails by 121.50 points.

All three riders are six-of-seven for an 85.7 percent riding average on the season.

The Built Ford Tough Series will be in Fresno and Sacramento next weekend. The Fresno event will be broadcast on NBC on Saturday afternoon beginning at 4:30 p.m. EST. The Sacramento event will air on Versus on Saturday and Sunday night at 8 p.m. EST.

NOTE: Following the New York City event, Adkins checked with Mike White regarding his wreck in the short go: “He took a shot in the championship round and, in fact, he’s going to have to have some X-rays because he’s possibly got a broken bone right there at the base of his skull. I did talk with Mike after the performance and he’s in some manageable pain, but you’ll have to (check-in with him) about what his status will be going forward.”