Bubble Watch: Mitchell Jumps Back into Top 30 in Kansas City
By: Justin Felisko
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Ezekiel Mitchell was finally able to smile, dance and celebrate for the first time in five weeks.
Mitchell ended a streak of six consecutive buckoffs on the Unleash The Beast by riding OK Brand for 87.75 points during Round 1 of the Caterpillar Classic.
The ride comes at a crucial moment in the season for Mitchell seeing as the second-year rider began the weekend just inside the Top 35 of the world standings.
Mitchell, though, says he has not been concerned one bit about the possibility of losing his spot on the PBR’s premier series.
“I don’t believe that I was ever on the cutline,” Mitchell said. “I was lacking in my job, but I knew that it only takes one bull to turn everything around, and I just told me, ‘Get tough.’ And that’s what I did. I got tough.”
Mitchell earned nine points toward the world standings by finishing third in Round 1.
There were a total of 10 qualified rides Friday night at the Sprint Center.
The 22-year-old is now 30th in the world standings – 7.34 points ahead of No. 36 Jake Lockwood – after beginning the event in 33rd place.
Mitchell had not earned any points toward the world standings since his fourth-place finish in Sacramento, California, last month.
The Rockdale, Texas, bull rider switched to a Brazilian-style rope for the first time in his career this week. Mitchell said he decided to change things up after going through a series of hangups with his old bull rope the last few weeks.
“I just had to start making business decisions, and I was being stubborn,” Mitchell said. “I didn’t want to let it go. But on this caliber of bulls, hanging up don’t really work because you get beat up. These guys are big and strong, and I just want to make my career as long as possible, and I’m the king of hanging up apparently right now, so to make the switch was kind of a no-brainer. Riding bulls as long as I can, or hanging up.”
Mitchell has drawn Hard Juice (0-3, UTB) for Round 2 on Sunday afternoon as he attempts to win his first Unleash The Beast event. Hard Juice has been ridden in all four of his outs at all levels of competition for an average score of 87.12 points.
Round 2 airs on CBS Sports Network at 8 p.m. ET and on RidePass at 2:45 p.m. ET.
Lockwood, though, also has a qualified ride on the board in Kansas City after his 84.25 points on Oscar De La Hoya. The younger brother of two-time World Champion Jess Lockwood, who won Round 1 with 90.5 points on Suns Up, heads into Round 2 Sunday in eighth place.
Meanwhile, Brennon Eldred has jumped up to No. 33 in the world standings following his second-place finish in Round 1 with an 88-point ride on Dirty Sancho.
“That was a good bull of Blake Sharp’s,” Eldred said. “Just really fast and right there to the right. Kind of had me out of shape the first round or two and got me to my fingertips, and I was just trying to stay small and try and make the right moves so my hand wouldn’t come out.”
In other cutline news, No. 66 Stetson Lawrence (5.86 seconds on Little Joe), No. 68 Alisson de Souza (5.58 seconds on Homegrown) and No. 95 Luciano de Castro (3.88 seconds on Crap Shoot) will enter Sunday with one last chance to try and crack the Top 35 following buckoffs in Round 1. Otherwise, the three riders will be sent down to the Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour.
Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko
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