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Cravens has been Spurring for Years

By: Justin Felisko
October 15, 2018

Cannon Cravens finished second in his premier series debut at the Cooper Tires Take The Money and Ride in Greensboro, North Carolina. Photo: Andy Watson/BullStockMedia.com.

GREENSBORO, N.C. – Ten-time PBR World Finalist L.J. Jenkins was entered in a “Bring Your Own Rider” ABBI maturity event a few years ago in Locust Grove, Oklahoma, when he began to search for a rider to take with him.

Jenkins wanted a good rider to showcase his bull, Play With My Berries, and he had a hunch of who he wanted to bring.

There was a 14-year-old by the name of Cannon Cravens that had been coming to his house in Porum, Oklahoma, frequently for two years. Cravens always wanted to get on the rankest bulls Jenkins could offer regardless of how young he was.

Sure enough, Cravens, who got on his first sheep at 3 years old and his first steer at 9, accepted the opportunity and headed down the road with Jenkins to the small Eastern Oklahoman town with less than 2,000 residents.

Jenkins to this day has not forgotten the lasting impression Cravens gave him at that ABBI event.

“First round he started spurring and the bull reversed it and bucked him off,” Jenkins recalled this weekend. “I asked, ‘Why in the hell did you start spurring?’

“He said, ‘Cause I wanted everyone to remember me.’”

“I knew right then he was going to make it.”

Four years later, Cravens came out spurring in his PBR premier series debut this past weekend in Greensboro, North Carolina, just as he did in Locust Grove.

The 18-year-old won the first two rounds of competition at the Cooper Tires Take The Money and Ride by riding Reign Lashes Testified for 88.75 points in Round 1 and Rebel Call for 87.5 points in Round 2.

“I just have to show everybody I can do it,” Cravens said of his adjustment from the Real Time Pain Relief Velocity Tour to the 25th PBR: Unleash The Beast. “These are ranker bulls, and I don’t have a problem with that. It will be just right.”

Cravens is the first rookie to make his career debut with a round-winning ride since Nevada Newman (2016) and Douglas Duncan (2009).

He also joins 2017 Rookie of the Year Jose Vitor Leme as rookies to win two or more rounds in their first event.

Cravens’ Round 2 victory left PBR Rookie of the Year and CBS Sports Network commentator J.W. Hart with chills.

“As this bull goes around to the left, he picks up really well,” Hart said during the broadcast. “He is moving that outside foot. Then he wants to move the outside foot, and gets a little cocky, and spurs right about here and he cuts loose.

“He gets down inside and gets over the front just a little. He picks his head up and gets back down underneath his rope. That is such a veteran move out of an 18-year-old kid. I got chills running down the back of my neck.”

Cravens wound up bucking off Udder Lover in 4.26 seconds on the final ride of the night in the championship round, costing himself the opportunity to join Jenkins in the record books as one of the few 18-year-olds to pick up a premier series victory.

Jenkins is the youngest bull rider to win a premier series event, and he called his pupil to congratulate him on the first ride of his career.

His advice has been simple for Cravens.

“Stay focused and don’t worry about anything,” Jenkins said when asked what advice he would offer. “You are good enough to be there, so keep riding like you know how and have fun. This will be the best time in your life and you will always look back on it, so make it count.”

Cravens’ second-place finish in Greensboro earned him 380 points toward the world standings, rocketing him from 61st to 37th.

Those points have put him a major step closer to the goal he made when he turned 18 and purchased his PBR card on May 3.

“I am setting my mind on making the World Finals and it is right there,” Cravens said. “I think I can do it.”

Cravens heads into the DeWalt Guaranteed Tough Invitational, presented by Cooper Tires, next weekend in Nampa, Idaho, on the doorstep of the Top 35 and is only 40 points behind No. 35 Marcos Gloria.

The Porum, Oklahoma, bull rider demonstrated remarkable composure at his first premier series event. The stage was not too big, the bulls were not too rank and the lights were not too bright.

 
Cravens credits his composure, and his ensuing confidence, to the mentorship he received from Jenkins and 1992 PRCA champion Cody Custer.

Cravens learned to hone his skills and riding style under the tutelage of Custer, and attended Custer’s Camp of Champions bull riding school.

“I get a lot of my style from Cody,” Cravens said. “Cody Custer really taught me how to ride bulls. A lot of my credit goes to L.J. too for pushing me and just letting me come over and get on bulls and helping me out.”

Craven’s father, Michael, was also an amateur bull rider and told Cannon’s grandpa, Charlie, when Cannon was born that he was holding a future bull rider.

Cannon arrives at the premier series with multiple youth bull riding association titles, a national junior high school championship and an L.J. Jenkins Tour season title on his resume.

“That is the thing,” Hart said. “This kid has been riding against older guys since he was 14-15 years old. Relate that to coming here and it is not going to be as bright stars and lights as it would most kids coming up through the high school ranks. He has been against those guys. He has been on L.J. Jenkins tour. He has been around here watching Jess LockwoodCooper Davis and hanging out with them guys. So when he walked into the locker room he wasn’t a stand-out, he knew those guys.”

Cravens is now ready to add to his list of accolades at the highest level.

Nampa is the final regular-season premier series event until the PBR World Finals.

If Cravens is unable to crack the Top 35 in Nampa, he still can qualify for the World Finals on Nov. 7-11 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas via the Velocity Tour.

Cravens is tied for ninth in the Velocity Tour standings and is only 90 points behind Velocity No. 1 Michael Lane, who admitted in Greensboro that he may have to sit out until the Velocity Finals after re-aggravating his groin injury in Huntington, West Virginia.

Cravens’ first Velocity Tour win came in Huntington, which gave him an exemption to Greensboro.

Cravens is 15-for-31 (48.39 percent) at all levels of competition with an RVT win and five runner-up finishes.

The 2018 Velocity Tour champion, as well as the Top 3 non-Top 35 finishers at the Velocity Tour Finals on Nov. 2-3, earn automatic bids to the World Finals.

There is one more remaining Velocity Tour regular-season event on Oct. 26-27 in Colorado Springs, Colorado, before the Velocity Tour Finals at the South Point Hotel Casino & Spa in Las Vegas.

The confidence that Cravens displayed in his two-round winning rides in Greensboro also translates to his mindset about his chances at riding at his first World Finals in three months.

“I think it is going to be pretty easy, honestly,” Cravens concluded. “I am right there at the top of the Velocity standings so if I just keep staying on, I will be there.”

Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko

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