The reigning Miss Oregon High School Rodeo took her show on the road and placed in the upper half of the field in competing for the title of National High School Rodeo Association queen July 12-22 in Gillette, Wyoming.

Rowdy Israel, of Dayville, placed 17th out of 41 competitors while leaving with an eighth-place finish in the personal interview category. Oregon’s coordinator for the National High School Rodeo Association, Jean McPherson, said Rowdy’s 17th place finish was the highest any Oregon competitor has received in a long time, according to Israel’s mother, Nicole.

The National High School Rodeo Association last crowned a queen from Oregon back in 1974. Julie Rugg remains the state’s only national winner.

Israel spent two months getting ready for the competition, and that preparation continued after she arrived in Wyoming.

“I rode my horse once when we got there because we got there Wednesday and the competition started Thursday,” she said. “So I rode my horse and did the pattern, and then I practiced my speech before I gave it on Friday that week, too.”

This queen competition was the largest Israel had ever participated in, but that dynamic took a back seat to the spectacle and opportunity the competition provided.

“It was an awesome experience, and I’m so glad I got to go,” she said. “It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and an amazing experience.”

How large was the National High School Rodeo this year? Right around 1,700 contestants and over 2,000 horses descended on the 1,000-acre Cam-Plex Multi-Event Facilities in Gillette, setting up 1,500 campsites sprawling across 400 acres.

“It’s hard to explain,” Israel said. “You almost have to be there and see it to experience it for yourself, but it was so awesome.”

Such a large number of competitors presents the opportunity to connect with people, and Israel said she established connections and friendships that she hopes will last a long time.

“I actually got the pleasure of becoming super-close with the girl who won the national title this year,” Israel said. “Her name is Harlee Stokes from Utah. She is literally just a doll; she’s so amazing. She’s very deserving of the title, and I’m so excited to watch her this year.”

Those kinds of relationships are an underappreciated aspect of these competitions, according to Israel, but are an integral part of the entire experience.

“The friendships make it, for sure,” she said. “You can either go there and just strictly work on the pageant or you can go there to be there and have fun and make friends while it’s going on. It’s literally an awesome networking experience.”