Simonson and Diesel second in nation

The world of college rodeo found out a few weeks ago what the Loring, Phillips County, and many other parts of Montana already knew.

Keira Simonson, daughter of Dan and Judy Simonson of Loring, is a great barrel racer.

On Sunday, September 30, Simonson, a senior at the University of Montana and graduate of Whitewater High School, closed the Fall Semester leading the Big Sky Region Barrel Racing event with 577 points. The closest rider to Simonson is Celie Salmond of Montana State University with 331 points.

With the spring semester of college rodeo starting in April, Simonson and her horse Diesel will look to hold on to their top placing. In the Big Sky Region there are about 70 barrel racers.

"It's hard for me to comprehend that I am actually sitting that good," said Simonson. "Because I have never done this good in college rodeo before."

Simonson is also currently ranked second in the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association (NIRA) standings behind NIRA Barrel Racing Champion Ashtyn Carlson of the College of Southern Idaho. The NIRA encompasses all colleges associated with major rodeo events from around the country. There are a total of eleven conferences that participate in NIRA events.

Simonson first took a hold of the leader spot after a rodeo event in Glendive (Dawson Community College), which was the second event of the school year.

"Then I ended up second in the average at Havre (Montana State University Northern)," Simonson said. "And that kept me at the top again. Then I won Dillon (University of Montana Western) also, which was (on September 30) and that kept me at the top."

Winning and placing high in events has also helped Simonson win back some of the money she has used to enter the rodeo events, and then some.

"Over the span of the last four college rodeos, I have won around $3,900," Simonson said. "It pays good money in barrel racing."

As for her ten-year-old horse Diesel, things are also going well.

"He is doing great obviously," Simonson said with a laugh.

Before the college rodeo season, Simonson had a choice during her run in professional rodeo events.

"The best thing I probably did was in the last weekend of pro rodeo (around Labor Day), I ended up not going to the last three events and it gave him some time off," she said. "It definitely did him some good."

Simonson also competed in the Indian National Finals Rodeo (INFR) on Tuesday, October 23 through Saturday, October 27. She qualified for the event by placing in the top ten during last summer's INFR tour. She won the last round with a time of 15.169.

Though she was able to win the short go round of the event, Simonson was frustrated at her outing.

"I was pretty frustrated with tipping the two rounds before, knowing that if I wouldn't of tipped I would of placed high in both rounds," Simonson said. "I knew I had the horse to win a round I just had to do it."