A rookie won the first round, a popular veteran won round two, and a tough four-year man took home his second event win in the early part of the season in this, the sixth event on the PBR Built Ford Tough Series tour. We also saw the first man versus beast challenge at this Copenhagen Bull Riding Invitational, presented by Pike Electric.
Friday night was a big one for young Skeeter Kingsolver. This 19-year-old slipped on to the BFTS tour and immediately made a name for himself by winning round one. He did so in style too, scoring 90.50 points on Big Iron, owned by Diamond S Bucking Bulls. One can’t ask for a better start than that!
Second was hometown favorite, J.B. Mauney. He was 89.75 on the Jeff Robinson Bucking Bull, Big Coyote. Austin Meier was third. He rode Teague Bucking Bulls, LLC’s Flashpoint to an even 89. Fourth went to Wiley Petersen. He scored 88.50 on Crazy Eddie, who is hauled by Diamond S Bucking Bulls.
There was a nasty wreck in the first round, as Zack Brown was not only briefly knocked unconscious, but appeared to have a serious neck injury as well. He was taken out of the arena on a board, but thankfully, a concussion was the extent of his injuries. He is questionable for next weeks’ events, however.
Round two was split between Chris Shivers and Travis Briscoe, both posting scores of 88.75. Shivers rode Leprechaun, owned by Frontier/Teague Bucking Bulls, and Briscoe covered the Chad Berger/Winston Loe bull, Gold Bell Wine. Third went to the 2008 World Champion Guilherme Marchi, with a score of 88. He rode Mac-Nett’s Hydroblast, owned by Jeff Robinson/Broken N-N/Cathy & Jason McNeely. Meier was fourth with an 87.50 on Clam Digger, who is owned by John & Lacey Berger.
Championship Round time, and, as is the case all this season, the men chose their fates by picking their bull. Mauney showed again that he is not afraid to meet a challenge, and chose Deja Blu of Teague Bucking Bulls, LLC for the short-go. His Copenhagen team member Shivers went with a Frontier/Teague/McBride & Wegman bull, California Dreaming. Both men scored a big 91 points, to share the top spot in the Championship Round.
Meier showed his consistency in North Carolina when he was third. He rode the Diamond S Bucking Bull High Lonesome to a score of 89.75. Petersen and Ryan McConnel split fourth and fifth by posting scores of 89. Petersen rode the Frontier/Teague/Ron White bull Scene of the Crash, and McConnel covered Nervous Waters. Same group of owners with Crash haul Nervous Waters.
The event standings went as follows; Mauney on top, Shivers second, Meier third, Petersen fourth, and McConnel fifth. This was a special win for J.B. He was in front of his home crowd, with many members of his family and lots of friends in attendance. It’s always a little more special to ride really well under those circumstances.
The Salem NationaLease Bucking Bull of the Event went to Chance. He was given a bull score of 46.875. Chance is owned by Teague Bucking Bulls, LLC.
Conspicuous by his absence in the Championship Round was the 2008 Bucking Bull of the Year, Bones. It wasn’t that he was not at the event; he had another job to do. Owner Tom Teague had issued a challenge to Guilherme March; $20,000 to Marchi if he could ride Bones for the eight seconds. Marchi had been on that bull before, twice in fact. Guilherme lasted longer than he had in his two previous attempts, 4.3 seconds, but obviously that was not long enough.
Teague decided to save his bull and not put him in the Championship Round because he had something else in mind. He issued another challenge. Would J.B. be willing to give Bones a try two weeks from now in Oklahoma City? Oh, hell yeah! Right now this young man believes he is unstoppable, and wants to prove it. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see a trend here, but I think it’s kind of fun. I look forward to the J.B. match-up, for sure.
The BFTS World Standings have Mauney in the lead, Meier second, Kody Lostroh third, Petersen fourth, Ryan Dirteater fifth, Kasey Hayes sixth, McConnel seventh, Marchi eighth, Shane Proctor ninth, and Shivers grabbed tenth. With the addition of McConnel, Marchi, and Shivers, Brown, Mike Lee, and Valdiron de Oliveira found themselves falling off the top ten list.
Andy Watson photos
Be safe and God Bless,
Viva La Raza,
Barb.
Copyright 1996 - 2008 Rodeo Attitude, LLC., All rights reserved.