On Friday night at the Winnemucca Events Center, Bailey Reynolds from Winnemucca had one of her dreams come true.
She was competing against five other girls from British Columbia, Washington, California, Utah and Idaho for the title of Silver State International Rodeo queen.
“I’m excited and ready to be done with the week," Reynolds said just before the awards ceremony began. "It’s been really busy and fun.”
As the preliminary awards were being announced, Reynolds' name was conspicuously absent until the final preliminary award for horsemanship was given to her.
Then the runner-up countdown began. British Columbia, Washington, Idaho, and California were named as fifth-second runners up respectively.
This left just Utah and Nevada as the final two attendants vying for the title of queen.
Utah had claimed three of the preliminary awards to Nevada’s one, so it seemed unlikely that Nevada would emerge victorious in this battle.
However, there were several ties in the preliminary awards that Reynolds had been involved in, she just did not win those awards due to tie-breakers. Reynolds' overall total score made her the 2018 SSIR Queen.
On Saturday, The Humboldt Sun caught up with Reynolds to get her reaction to all this excitement. “It’s really shocking," Reynolds said. "I still have to remember that I’m the queen, I actually won. I’m still in the ‘shock zone.”
Reynolds continued, “I’m super excited for the year, I know how the ‘queening’ world works. I’m just excited to get out there and get involved in all the stuff it has to offer.”
When asked if she had any advice for future queen candidates, Reynolds said, “Never give up, work hard to do what you want to do and achieve your goals.”
