Bass Pro Shops Missouri Thunder Draft Colten Fritzlan in Opening Round of First-Ever PBR Team Series Draft
By: PBR
ARLINGTON, Texas – The Bass Pro Shops Missouri Thunder selected young gun Colten Fritzlan (Rifle, Colorado) as their first pick in the inaugural PBR Team Series Draft, presented by ZipRecruiter held in Arlington, Texas on May 23. Among eight teams, the Missouri Thunder had the fifth pick in the first round of the draft for the new bull riding league that begins competition in late July.
On the heels of being named the 2020 PRCA Rookie of the Year, Fritzlan collected the title of NFR bull riding champion that very same year. The 22-year-old emerged on the PBR Unleash The Beast premier series in early 2021 in Okeechobee, Florida where he captured his very first event win. Battling injuries throughout the end of 2021 and into 2022, Fritzlan has reemerged, most recently clinching second place at the regular-season event in Nampa, Idaho.
“Over the last several months our Coaches Ross Coleman and Luke Snyder have really worked hard to evaluate everyone,” said Missouri Thunder General Manager Randy Bernard. “The past three days they teamed up to review potential picks, make notes and present to me. Today went almost exactly as we anticipated. We were able to draft everyone we wanted and also landed Cody Teel, who we didn’t think would be available. Bass Pro’s Missouri Thunder is in a really good place heading into the season.”
The Missouri Thunder also selected:
• ROUND 2 – Clayton Sellars (Fruitland Park, Florida)
• ROUND 3 – Cody Teel (College Station, Texas)
• ROUND 4 – Andrew Alvidrez (Seminole, Texas)
• ROUND 5 – Jessi Petri (Dublin, Texas)
2022 PBR Team Series Draft, presented by ZipRecruiter, was held at Texas Live! in Arlington, Texas, a day after the 2022 PBR World Finals: Unleash The Beast concluded at Dickies Arena in nearby Fort Worth, Texas, crowning Daylon Swearingen as 2022 PBR World Champion.
The eight founding teams of the inaugural PBR Team Series – Austin Gamblers, Arizona Ridge Riders, Carolina Cowboys, Kansas City Outlaws, Missouri Thunder, Nashville Stampede, Oklahoma Freedom, and Texas Rattlers – participated in an initial 5-round draft, beginning the process of selecting which riders will be competing on their respective teams when the season begins on July 25-26 at Cheyenne Frontier Days in Cheyenne, Wyoming.
All PBR riders in good standing with the league were eligible for the 2022 PBR Team Series Draft as long as they declared by May 6, 2022. Riders who declared for fewer than 10 events are eligible for a two-round supplemental draft on June 2.
In tonight’s initial draft, teams were eligible to select up to five riders, unless they traded a draft pick. The June 2 supplemental draft, comprised of riders declaring availability for fewer than 10 regular season events (but no fewer than 5 regular season events), will help teams fill seven protected roster positions.
When they begin their 10-event regular season, culminating in a Teams Championship in Las Vegas November 4-6, teams will have ten riders in total, including 7 “Protected Roster” riders and 3 “Practice Squad” developmental riders.
The bull riding games that make up the 11-event season will feature five-on-five, head-to-head competition between two teams. Each regular-season event day will feature all teams in a game.
The inaugural draft order was determined by a lottery held on Jan. 7 in New York City when the Missouri Thunder were awarded the fifth pick.
Prior to the lottery draw, the PBR issued Draft guidelines that specified the two PBR-owned teams (Carolina Cowboys and Oklahoma Freedom) would select in the last two positions in the draft order, and, further, that the draft would be conducted in a “snake” format in which the first team to select in Round 1 would receive the last pick in Round 2 (i.e., Pick 16), the first pick in Round 3 (i.e., Pick 17), and so forth.
The Missouri Thunder will host its inaugural homestand on Sept. 23-25 at Thunder Ridge Nature Amphitheatre.
For more information about Missouri Thunder, visit https://pbr.com/teams/thunder/, Missouri Thunder on Facebook, @missouri_thunder on Instagram, or @MissourThunder on Twitter.
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