NEW YORK CITY – It was a night of high flying rides in round two of the PBR’s Versus Invitational in New York City on Saturday night.
Following up on more than half the riders making qualified rides in Friday’s round one, 26 riders covered their bulls in round two.
Leading the pack, both winning Saturday night’s round and leading in the event average is two time PBR World Champion Chris Shivers.
After ending the 2007 PBR season ranked 45th, his worst finish in at least nine years, Shivers is doing everything right in 2008. His 87 point ride in round one had Shivers picking third Saturday morning, in the new system that lets riders pick their bulls for round two (in three day events). His pick was Cat Man Do (#10 Bucking Bulls).
It proved to be a smart choice. Shivers put up the only 90-plus point ride of the event so far aboard Cat Man Do Saturday night. His score was 90.75, setting off the confetti cannons in Madison Square Garden.
“He’s a good, electric bull, and he’s light on his feet,” Shivers said of his choice, following his round 2 win. “I saw Friday night the ground in the arena is kind of spongy, and I thought his style could handle the ground better. He’s a fast spinner and he’s not a bull that is a high jumper.”
Shivers had faced Cat Man Do once before, and that ride also resulted in a 90-point score.
Shivers said he is in favor of the new procedure of letting riders pick their round two bulls.
“I think it’s to our, the riders’, advantage. There are a lot of bulls that I would not want to get on in this round,” Shivers explained. “I got to pick early, because of my ride last night. I think the change brings even more excitement. I think it’s a good thing. Even if I didn’t win tonight, I’d still think so.”
There are two dozen other PBR riders who, after putting scores up Saturday night, probably agree.
Brazilian Valderon de Oliveira took second in round two, with an 89-pointer on Scaredy Cat (Berger/Ryken/Hawks). He came into the round right behind Shivers, finished the round right behind him, and now sits in second in the average for the event.
Third in round two went to Dustin Elliott on Texas (C Berger/Dibbett), with 88.75 points, followed by Guilherme Marchi with 87.75 on Red Light (Frontier/Teague). Clayton Williams was 5th, with an 87.25 aboard Red Jacket (Berger/Daniels), with a hang up at the end of his ride, and Sean Willingham and Brendon Clark split 6th and 7th at 86.25 points, aboard Patsy’s Pet (Ricky West) and Tiger (Davis/Wilson/El Charro) respectively.
There was a five way split for 8th through 12th place, at 85.5 points. Sharing that spot in the standing were Nick Landreneau, Ned Cross, Matt Bohon, Kody Lostroh and Dustin Hall.
Heading into Sunday’s round three, 15 riders will start the round with two scores in the books. Another 23 will start the day with one score.
The top ten riders, heading into Sunday’s round and short-go are: Shivers, Oliveira, Dustin Elliott, Marchi, Luke Snyder, Travis Briscoe, Sean Willingham, L J Jenkins, JB Mauney and Kasey Hayes (round one’s winner).
Hayes got first choice of bulls for Saturday’s round, and as he stated after winning Friday night, he chose Nervous Waters (Frontier/Teague/Ron White). The bull won, however, sending Hayes crashing to the ground at the 5.5 second mark. Because of the buck-off, he failed to collect on the Enterprise Ride with the Best bonus, which went to the contractors instead.
Shivers hopes to repeat his rounds one and two performances and hold on to win the event.
Asked what is the difference between last year’s less than stellar riding and this year’s start, Shivers said he is feeling totally healthy for the first time in a long time.
“I’m healthy. I can finally say I’m healthy,” Shivers said. “I did not get on a bull since the World Finals (in October) until last weekend’s event.”
“Last year, I broke my leg in the first event of the year (Hawaii), and I don’t think I got past that,” Shivers said. “I don’t know if it was a physical thing or a mental thing, but there was always something nagging at me. I got over it, and things are going good and I’m feeling good. I hope it continues.”
No injuries were reported in round two, despite several hang-ups, a few hard landings and Greg Potter going head-to-head with Frank the Tank (John & Lacey Berger/Struve), one of several direct hits between the two during Potter’s 4.9 second ride.
Also noteworthy are Mike Lee and Kody Lostroh. Both riders currently boast a perfect 100 percent riding percentage, having covered all their bulls last weekend in Atlanta and both bulls so far this weekend.
