story by Ruth Nicolaus
McKenna Coronado is the 2015-2016 Utah High School Rodeo Girls Rookie of the Year.
The fifteen year old cowgirl, a resident of Kanarraville, Utah, competes in the barrel racing, pole bending, breakaway roping, goat tying, team roping and cutting, and of her six events, considers cutting and barrels to be her best, because she’s grown up doing both of them.
McKenna, a sophomore at Cedar High School in Cedar, loves to see her friends at school and talk to everybody. She is on the honor roll and a member of the National Honor Society.
Winning rookie of the year for the Utah High School Association was wonderful, she said. “It was a pretty cool experience.” She is the 2016 Utah High School Cutting champion, but the title was sweeter after a bit of discouragement. “I was disappointed with how my spring (season) went, she said. “I went into (state) with nothing to lose, and just gave it my all. It ended up coming out with a surprisingly good outcome.” She also finished in the top ten in the breakaway and barrels. At the National High School Finals, she finished 29th in the nation in the cutting. “I was hoping to do better, but I was glad to have the opportunity to be there.”
McKenna has qualified to run barrels at The American Rodeo’s semi-finals in Ft. Worth, Texas in February.
For fun, she loves to spend time hunting, riding, camping, or driving four-wheelers with her family on Cedar Mountain or Kanarra Mountain. When she grows up, she’d like to be a veterinarian.
She has two older brothers, Dason and Kagen, and a younger brother, Kanden.
She is the daughter of Mike and Becky Coronado.
