Starting off the night as No. 1 in the league, the Carolina Cowboys competed on home turf for the third annual Professional Bull Riding Camping World Team Series.
The crowd was fired up as audience members wore their boots, dawned their cowboy hats and rang their cowbells. The opening ceremony started with a bang as flashy pyrotechnics spelled out “PBR” in the dirt.
Cooper Davis rides atop "Heavy Hitter" during the Carolina Cowboy's PBR Team Series match against the Kansas City Outlaws.
The team’s three-day stop in Greensboro — titled Cowboy Days — started Sept. 20 where the Cowboys beat the Kansas City Outlaws 349.75 to 260.5.
Justin McDonnel and his wife traveled over an hour to the Greensboro Coliseum for opening night. McDonnel said he was glad the Carolina PBR team has been doing so well in the playoffs.
“I think our football team sucks, so it’s good to see our PBR fans get a win,” McDonnel said.
However, the Cowboys weren’t the only team competing at the Greensboro Coliseum on Friday. Including the Outlaws and the Cowboys, eight of the 10 teams in the league were paired against one another.
The Texas Rattlers were the highest scoring team of the night with a total 427.5 points; all five of their riders qualified for points. This is the fifth time in the league all riders on a team have qualified — two of those times were the Cowboys.
Scores are out of 100, and the highest score from night one of the Cowboy Days was a 90 from Florida Freedom’s John Crimber, a 19-year-old rookie with a 54% success rate of qualifying rides.
In order for a ride to get scored, the rider must successfully keep one hand on the bull rope and one hand in the air for 8 seconds. As the bulls bucked the riders off, dirt flew into the first few rows of the crowd and a safety team of bullfighters worked together to get the bull off the field.
Carolina Cowboy's rider Carolina Ethan Winckler is bucked off "Almost Sober" and flips upside down during the shootout round of the PBR Team Series event at the Greensboro Coliseum on Friday, Sep. 20.
The Cowboys line-up for the night included world champion Cooper Davis, Derek Kolbaba, Trey Benton III, 2022 world champion Daylon Swearingen, Sage Kimzey and reserve rider Dawson Branton who completed a re-ride granted to Kimzey since the bull — named Bamboozled — hit the pen.
The Cowboys will compete against No. 6 Nashville Stampede on Sept. 21 and No. 7 Missouri Thunder on Sept. 22. Tickets to the event are available through TicketMaster. The events can also be watched online through Merit streaming.
With only two regular season events remaining, the odds seem to be in the Cowboys’ favor — the betting odds, at least.
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Anjolina Fantaroni contributed to the reporting of this story.