A little bit of history was made at the Art Hauser Centre Friday.
For the first time in the 14 years that the Cooper-Clunie Memorial PBR event has taken place, there ended up being a tie at the top of the standings.
Okotoks, Alberta’s Jordan Hansen and Jake Lockwood of Volberg, Montana shared the honours on night two of the competition as they both had scores of 171 points.
“This happens more than you might think but it’s definitely a first for me at a PBR event,” Hansen said. “Jake did his job tonight and I’m just as happy for him as I am with how I rode.”
“With so many great bulls here, you never know what’s going to happen,” Lockwood said. “Everything is so close with the competition that’s here at this event.”
After posting an 84.5-point ride on Preacher Man to have the fourth best score of the first round, Hansen went on and put together the best ride of the event in the short-go.
With the first six riders having been bucked off before the buzzer sounded, Hansen went the distance on Broken Trigger for a score of 86.5 points.
“I really didn’t know a lot about him other than the guy who rode him yesterday got thrown off,” Hansen said.
“He’s bigger and stronger than most bulls, so I put a little extra rosin on and I was lucky that we was able to spin away from my hand.”
Lockwood was a model of consistency during the night as he had identical 85.5-point rides to match Hansen’s showing.
“I knew a bit about the last bull I rode (Baja Midnight) as I watched my buddy Jake Gardner draw him last night,” Lockwood said. “He had me beat there early on but I was just able to hang on for long enough.”
Lockwood has had a successful month in Saskatchewan, as the 19-year-old nabbed his first PBR win in Nipawin on May 10.
“I’ve had a lot better luck than last year that’s for sure,” Lockwood joked. “I’m just taking things week by week here after an event tomorrow in Great Falls and hopefully we can keep things going.
“I’m going to be up in Canada for most of the summer as there’s a lot of events that are close to us in Montana. The people up here are great and I love the events that they put on up here.”
It was also a big win for Hansen as he was able to add the Prince Albert tour stop to his list of event titles.
“I’ve had some injuries over the past couple of years so I couldn’t take part, but this is an event I always want to come to,” Hansen said.
“It’s nice to get the win but you have to get ready for the next event right away. I’m actually flying out of here at six in the morning to go to a PBR tour stop in Halifax, but that’s the life we live. We’re lucky to do what we do.”
Aaron Roy of Yellow Grass and Weston Hartman of Mandan, North Dakota both had a chance to capture the title but were each bucked off their bulls in the short-go round.
