By Lincoln Shryack

Twenty-year-old Jess Lockwood made history on Sunday night in Las Vegas as he became the youngest PBR World Champion of all time after finishing third in the bull riding World Finals. The Montana cowboy is just the second rider in history to follow up a rookie of the year season with a world title, as Silvano Alves of Brazil first accomplished the feat back in 2011.

Youth was also served by the PBR World Finals event champion, as 21-year-old Jose Vitor Leme of Brazil secured the biggest win of his career by riding every bull he attempted. Leme’s performance rocketed him up the standings, from 53rd entering the week to seventh place at the end of the day. He was the only rider on the weekend to go a perfect six-for-six in his attempts. Leme took home $300,000 for his efforts.

But the event truly belonged to Lockwood, who had all but clinched the title by winning the first three rounds on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. The second-year PBR athlete didn’t record another successful ride in Las Vegas, but after entering the competition in third in the world standings, his three round wins were good enough to hold on by 49 points over Cooper Davis. The 20-year-old can now call himself a millionaire, as Lockwood collected the $1 million bonus awarded to the PBR World Champion. After Sunday, his 2017 earnings swelled to $1,525,292.90 on the season.

Like his brilliant performance in Vegas, Lockwood’s reflections on his title seemed well beyond his 20 years.

“The money is icing on the cake, but money doesn’t mean much and it goes away,” Lockwood told PBR.com. “The championship buckle will be with me forever.”

Lockwood’s perseverance will surely make that buckle shine even brighter in his eyes. The 2016 rookie of the year had to fight through several serious injuries on the season, including four broken ribs, a punctured lung, and a lacerated kidney after a bull stomped on his chest on September 23. That incident preceded an injury two weeks before that nearly broke Lockwood’s back. He ultimately sustained just a lower-back strain, but the bucking knocked the young cowboy out cold. But the Montana rider isn’t easy to keep out of competition: Lockwood was back on the bull the following week.

By overcoming all those scars to make history this past weekend, Lockwood once again proved his remarkable toughness.

“A lot of grit went into this,” Lockwood told PBR. com. “I got pretty banged up this year. You got to cowboy up each and every weekend and make the most of every bull.”

History wasn’t just made by the riders in Las Vegas, as SweetPro’s Bruiser won his second consecutive PBR World title. Bruiser averaged a 46.5-point bull score in Vegas to take the crown, making him just the second bull to win the PBR title and be named PRCA Bull of the Year in the same season. Bruiser joins Hall of Famer Bodacious as the only other bovine to hold such honors.