After the first go-round of the barrel racing at the 2022 National High School Rodeo Finals in Gillette, Wyoming, last week, Spanish Fork cowgirl Morgan Beckstrom found herself in an unfamiliar position:

Her first run of 17.362 seconds put her in 10th place and needing to make up time.

Beckstrom, who will be a junior at Spanish Fork High School this fall and competes for the South Utah County rodeo club, ran away with the state title in the event, so she had to know that she had her talented horse Slingshot had it in them to do better.

But knowing they could do it and doing it can be two different things.

How did Beckstrom and Slingshot respond?

They came up with a much better time in the second go-round, exploding around the three barrels in 17.097 seconds. That was the second-fastest time in the go-round and put Beckstrom right behind Rachel Ward of Philipsburg, Montana, in the overall competition.

In her final run in the short-go on Saturday, Beckstrom and her horse once again proved they deserve to be champions.

With all the pressure on them, they put together the best run of any cowgirl at nationals, blazing around the barrels in just 16.892 seconds.

That was sufficient to propel Beckstrom into the top spot and give her the title of world champ (since the national competition includes non-USA competitors).

Her total time for the three runs was 51.351 seconds, nearly three-10ths of a second faster than the second-place finisher, Rayne Grant of Wheatland, Wyoming.

In addition to Beckstrom’s success, Lehi club representative Joely Pratt was in a tight battle for the top spot in the light rifle competition.

Pratt had just edged out Enterprise’s Beau Emett to win the Utah state title at the state finals in Heber in June, narrowly holding on to win the state crown by just two points (109-107).

The two elite rifle shooters made the national finals the next spot for their showdown, battling again through every round.

This time, however, it was Emett made the shots that counted to win the world title and knocked Pratt into second place (679-650).

Other Utah world champions included West Millard club’s Statler Wright in saddle bronc riding, Dixie club’s Jacee Graff in goat tying and Spikers club’s Chase Campbell in trap shooting.

The Spikers club got an additional recognition when 2022 Utah state queen Addison Redd also won the queen competition at nationals.

The cowboy contingent that represented Utah turned in another banner performance, outscoring all other states to win with 5,565 points (second-place Texas had 4,830 points).

Beckstrom and the Utah girls team came in fourth with 3,713.03 points, well behind the title-winning 6,600 points scored by the Texas representatives.

The combined effort of the boys and girls put the Utah team just behind Texas with the second-best showing the country.

For complete results from the national finals, go to https://nhsra.com/2022-nhsfr-results.

Check in Wednesday’s sports section to hear Beckstrom tell her story about competing, winning and being recognized for her success on the biggest stage of high school rodeo in the country.

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