Orginially published on Daily Herlard– June 5th, 2024
Maklee Larsen of Genola has had an amazing career in high school rodeo.
She’s come in first at the Utah State High School Rodeo Finals in breakaway roping, pole bending and goat tying, as well as being named the top all-around cowgirl in 2023.
But that list had one gaping hole.
Despite all of those achievements, Larsen had never managed to win a performance in what she calls her main event: the barrel racing.
Wednesday, however, that finally changed.
“It was really special,” Larsen said. “I’d never won in barrel racing, so it was great to be able to do that at my last state finals.”
Larsen rode around the three barrels in an impressive time of 16.137 seconds, nearly three-tenths of a second faster than the next best rider.
That run came at a time when the senior said she needed to make something happen.
“It is very intense out there,” Larsen said. “I came in fifth in the state and they take the top four to Nationals. We had to come here and be on our A game. We’ve got to make a run and that was we did this morning.”
It’s particularly difficult in barrel racing, where the competition in Utah is stiff and it often comes down to very close times.
“We’ve come in the top five the last two years,” Larsen said. “Usually the top four of the fastest barrel racers on three get to go to nationals, and so there’s always a girl who made three great runs and didn’t get a punch her ticket to Wyoming. It’s crazy.”
Larsen — who lives in Payson High School boundaries but does online school through the Utah Virtual Academy — explained that she loves competing in rodeo and has pushed herself to be as good as she can be in as many events as possible.
“I’ve rodeoed for the last 14 years,” Larsen said. “I won the all-around in fifth grade and under, in junior high and then I won the all-round last year in high school. So I’ve been doing every event, trying to bring home an all-around championship.”
Her expectations for repeating that success, however, were severely impacted by a couple of unfortunate events during the 2023-24 season.
“I actually got hurt in the goat-tying, so I had to give that up,” Larsen said. “That hurt me a little bit in the all-around. And then the horse I rode to do the pole bending passed away, so I went from doing five events to just three. So there isn’t as much pressure because I’m not at the top this year like I was last year, but things happen.”
Although this will be her final state high school rodeo competition, Larsen plans to go to USU-Eastern to rodeo on its rodeo team as well as pursue a degree in nursing.
“I’m going to miss the competition but I’m also excited to go join the college rodeo association and see what that looks like as well,” Larsen said.
She explained that going up against other great athletes is something she loves about going to the state finals.
“This is the best in the state and they’ve worked their butts off to get here,” Larsen said. “You have to come here on top of your game and so there’s no room for mistakes. You’ve got to go out there and give it your all every single time.”
As she prepares to wrap up her high school career, she said her advice to young rodeo competitors is to invest the time to be great even though it’s not easy.
“Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard,” Larsen said. “Always put in 100% and always practice with a purpose.
“That’s where the love for the sport comes in. If it was just a job that you just did every day, I’m not sure it would be as fun. But when you love to do it and you get to compete on your equine athletes, I think that’s what keeps us hungry to want to win.”
Larsen was joined by South Utah County’s Weston Milner as the only first-place finish for area rodeo clubs in the first performance of the finals, as Milner and Spikers cowboy Rowdy Jax McKee won the team roping.
Other cowgirls and cowboys also had stellar showings.
Lehi club’s Logan Arnbrister was second in steer wrestling, while South Utah County’s Whitley Hatt ended up second in the goat-tying and Wasatch’s Westin Simpson came in second in the bareback bronc riding.
In the cow cutting short-go, Lehi club senior Peyton Anderson finished second in the girls competition, while South Utah County’s Luke Haskell was second on the boys side.
The competition will continue with morning and evening performances on Thursday and Friday leading up to the short-go on Saturday morning. All performances will take place at the Wasatch County Events Complex in Heber.
For complete results and details, go to http://UHSRA.org.
To learn more about Utah Virtual Academy please visit, https://utva.k12.com/.
