Teel and Eguchi Ranked in Top 10 of PBR

Teel was 2-for-3 in Arcadia, including an 86.25-point effort on Buckle Bunny and another 82.75 points on Why Hell Ya. He’s now 3-for-6 for 50 percent on the season and feels good about his riding heading into the third elite event.

Like Teel, Eguchi is 3-for-6 and has been impressive, especially on bulls spinning away from his right hand.

Two-time PBR World Champion-turned-CBS broadcaster Justin McBride said Eguchi’s “best attribute is he never panics on the back of a bull.”

McBride told Saturday’s television audience Eguchi never lifts his head up or looks out away from the bull he’s riding. Instead, the 31-year-old Brazilian reacts to each move and jump and is always working to keep himself in the middle of a bull’s back.

He did just that in Arcadia.

Eguchi did not quite have the bull power to put him in a position to finish first, but it was enough to move him into the Top 10 and secure a place in this coming weekend’s 15/15 Bucking Battle along with Teel.

Kolbaba was 87.75 points in the opening round.

It was the first time he made the whistle and was scored anything less than 90 points or more since mid-October. He had ended the 2020 season with three consecutive 90-plus rides and finished the year ranked 13th in the world.

Kolbaba is currently ranked 28th in the world.

Two-time World Champion and Monster Energy fan-favorite J.B. Mauney was also in Arcadia and will compete in Okeechobee.

Chase Outlaw, who missed most of the last year, is nearing his return to the arena after undergoing his fourth shoulder surgery, while Jose Vitor Leme and Jess Lockwood are confident of their respective return to the area in the near future.

Lockwood, who won the world title in 2017 and again in 2019, broke his jaw on his first bull of the 2021 season and has assured everyone he will be ready to return in mid-February in time for the Del Rio, Texas, event.

“I feel good,” he said in a video he shared on social media.

Leme announced his broken ankle won’t need to be surgically repaired and he will be back in competition as soon as it heals on its own.