The US Border Patrol Invitational Invades St. Louis

After a break from regular competition last week, the Professional Bull Riders Unleash The Beast Tour regained steam with another Midwest stop here in St. Louis, Missouri for the U.S. Border Patrol Invitational.  While some of the contestants here this weekend were able to nurse their aches and pains during the week off, others are coming in hot from a fantastic Global Cup event where select individuals were hand-picked to represent their respective countries in a very unique setting.  While much of the event was dominated by the bovine athletes in Texas one week ago, the top 35 bull riders in the world standings came into St. Louis ready to put their best feet forward and right the ship that was overshadowed last weekend inside of AT&T Stadium in Arington, although, the event itself provided many more opportunities for the cowboys to be roughed up which might cause even more problems here this weekend.

Coming into this weekend’s event, the main focus of a majority of those watching and following the action is that of the race at the top of the world standings between Jose Vitor Leme and Jess Lockwood, which continues from the PBR WOrld Finals this last November.  Each and every event so far in the 2020 season has had these two trading blows and, for the most part, matching ride for ride making the early-season world title race another one for the record books.  Looking at the match-ups here this weekend, we can expect to see much more of the same between these two with the only question of who will outperform the other, not only round to round but throughout the entire weekend to see who will come out of St. Louis with more world title race points than the other.

Claudio Montanha Jr. Takes Home The Round One Win In St. Louis

Photo Credit: Andy Watson / Bull Stock Media

As round one was set to begin, the top bull riders in the world looked to outshine their bovine counterparts as the bucking action began down on the arena floor in front of a sold-out St. Louis crowd.  Once the opening ceremonies and introductions were complete it was time for the evening’s pairings to take center stage, which all in all, looked like a round to test out newer bucking bulls and give up and coming bull riders a shot at stardom.  The reason I say this is because throughout the round the bucking bulls looked like they were nursing hangovers from the night before or were just learning how to act inside of the arena.  Although there were some nice rides and outs by the bulls, that was all overshadowed by the fact that the performance of the bovine athletes, minus a few select outs, was considered less than stellar with a large number of re-ride opportunities that were presented to the riders throughout the entire round on Saturday night.

All in all, there was not much to talk about performance-wise which left the fans watching live and on Ridepass hoping for more as Championship Sunday was the next thing on the list to close out the weekend here in St. Louis and the U.S. Border Patrol Invitational.  Things began very slowly and that momentum never really changed as the rides were ended prematurely as the sections continued to go by the wayside.  After all was said and done, there were only seven qualified rides made in round one that did not give the fans in attendance much to cheer about as their favorite riders were outmatched all night long.  Following the conclusion of round one, Claudio Montaha Jr. would take home top honors with a mediocre 87 point ride aboard Blake Sharp /Buckwild Bucking Stock’s Constant Sorrow, followed closely by six others who managed to make the eight-second buzzer.

COMPLETE BREAKDOWN OF ROUND ONE QUALIFIED RIDES IN ST. LOUIS

Claudio Montanha Jr. (87.00)

Jess Lockwood (86.50)

Jose Vitor Leme (84.75)

Cole Melancon / Marcus Mast (83.75)

Lucas Divino (82.25)

Aaron Kleier (81.50)

Daylon Swearingen Brings Home The 15/15 Bucking Battle Win

Photo Credit: Andy Watson / Bull Stock Media

Following round one earlier in the evening, the top fifteen bull riders in the world standings were given the chance to compete in another 15/15 Bucking Battle in hopes of earning some extra world title race points.  Hoping that their performance would not match the efforts put out in round one, where only seven total riders were made, they came into the round with a new confidence which absolutely showed as the ride totals in this edition of the 15/15 Bucking Battle were quite grand.  Things began to heat up right away and after all was said and done and the dust settled there would be another seven qualified rides made, which is half of the field in this particular round, which allowed the fans watching to finally get up off their seats and cheer a little bit on a Saturday night.  Daylon Swearingen would be the man to take the walk to the top of the shark cage after a round-winning 91.75 point ride atop of Bloyd Land & Cattle Company Inc.’s I’m Legit Too, closely followed by the rest of the field who put up impressive scores of their own.

COMPLETE BREAKDOWN OF 15/15 BUCKING BATTLE QUALIFIED RIDES

Daylon Swearingen (91.75)

Matt Triplett (91.50)

Jose Vitor Leme (89.75)

Jess Lockwood (89.25)

Kaique Pacheco (87.75)

Dener Babosa (87.50)

Derek Kolbaba (85.75)

Jose Vitor Leme Brings Home The Round Two Top Ride

Photo Credit: Andy Watson / Bull Stock Media

Following a disastrous round one performance by most of the top 35 bull riders in the world, each and every one of them came into Championship Sunday with a chip on their shoulder and with something to prove to the loyal fans that cheer them on each weekend and to themselves for that matter.  Coming into round two, the chance of making the championship round later in the day was still wide open and they all knew that after only seven qualified rides were made, leaving eight open spots still available.  On paper, the parings looked extremely favorable for the cowboys but the bovine athletes looked to continue the dominant trend that they have established over the last two weekends, both here and in Arlington, Texas at the PBR Global Cup event last weekend.

When the lights began to grow bright down on the arena floor it was time to get down to business and, hopefully, see more qualified rides than we did last night in round one.  Every one of the cowboys here this weekend was looking ahead to what they had to do to make it to the Championship Round later in the afternoon which was still wide open as round two began on Championship Sunday.  The action began quickly and the ride totals slowly began to creep up, looking to fill all of the available fifteen sots for the championship round.  Once all was said and done there would be other 13 qualified rides being made with Jose Vitor Leme standing tall as the round two winner with an 89 point ride on K-C Bucking Bulls / Spark-lin Acres’s Inferno.  As round one looked glim, round two gave us some excitement which ended with a combined 16 riders making the eight-second buzzer in at least one of the two rounds, filling out the needed fifteen spots in the Championship Round.

COMPLETE BREAKDOWN OF ROUND TWO QUALIFIED RIDES

Jose Vitor Leme (89.00)

Jess Lockwood (88.50)

Claudio Montanha Jr. (87.75)

Colten Jesse (87.50)

Mason Taylor / Brennon Eldred (86.25)

Ramon de Lima (85.75)

Daylon Swearingen / Eduardo Aparecido (85.50)

Matt Triplett (83.75)

Taylor Toves (83.00)

Dakota Louis (81.50)

Lucas Divino (59.00)

Daylon Swearingen Rides To The Championship Round Victory

Photo Credit: Andy Watson / Bull Stock Media

The championship round here in St. Louis was one that would change the tide of how the weekend would be remembered by all the fans watching either live, on Ridepass or on CBS Sports Network.  The top fifteen bull riders from the first two rounds put out some great effort while combining to earn six qualified rides that brought the crowd to their feet in the excitement of what they were witnessing.  Throughout the round, many great performances were seen but none could beat the amazing ride that Daylon Swearingen put up aboard JD Nix / Sosa Buckers’ Sosa’s Alley Cat to the tune of 90 huge points to win the championship round here at the U.S. Border Patrol Invitational.  The 15/15 win and the championship round win shot him up the world standings leaderboard as we head towards Kansas City next weekend.

COMPLETE BREAKDOWN OF CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND QUALIFIED RIDES

Daylon Swearingen (90.00)

Jose Vitor Leme (88.75)

Lucas Divino (88.50)

Taylor Toves / Brennon Eldred (87.00)

Ramon de Lima (83.50)

Jose Vitor Leme Is Crowned The 2020 U.S. Border Patrol Invitational Champion

Photo Credit: Andy Watson / Bull Stock Media

Fighting through a tough weekend seemed to be the name of the game here in St. Louis but after all was said and done the rides began to total up and things began to swing back towards the cowboys favor as the weekend drew to a close.  Through thick and thin there were a handful of cowboys that would manage to leave St. Louis with a renewed confidence that will be needed as we head across the state next weekend.  Ine of those men, Jose Vitor Leme, would be one of only two men to cover all of their bulls this weekend and would extend his world title race lead with a huge event win here at the U.S. Border Patrol Invitational after the dust settled and the last bull had been bucked out here in St. Louis.

After another event is in the books here in St. Louis as the U.S. Border Patrol Invitational has drawn to a close, we have a small trip ahead of us as we make out way across the state over to Kansas City, Missouri next week’s event.  Things may begin to look a little different as the first major change and shift in the atmosphere is upon us.  Now we will begin to see changes every five events as the bottom five in the Unleash The Beast standings will be knocked down to the Velocity tour while the top five performers in the Velocity Tour will be given a chance to make their names known on the Unleash The Beast Tour.  Each year we watch this happen and we begin to see new start emerge that may be able to stay on tour for a very long time if they can do enough to rank themselves up in the middle of the UTB standings.

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