By Rich Winter

605 Sports

Entering the first round of the breakaway roping competition at the South Dakota State High School Finals Rodeo, recently graduated Sturgis senior Landry Haugen had some work to do. 

Having made solid runs at the regional rodeos, Haugen jumped the gun in her first run at the state finals. 

“The first run I broke out so I knew I had to come back in the second run and have a top-five run,” Landry Haugen said. 

In the second go-round, Haugen caught her calf in 2.7 seconds putting her in position to qualify for the national finals in one of her favorite events.

“In the short go I knew that things can fall apart pretty easily,” she said. “I knew I just had to rope that calf to make nationals.”

Mission accomplished as the scoreboard in Fort Pierre said 3.7 seconds for Haugen’s final time. Her final score in the event was 51 point, a score that tied her with Newell’s Jaelyn Wendt for fourth place with both athletes advancing to the National High School Finals Rodeo that will take place in Gillette, Wyoming, on July 16-23.

A gutsy performance for sure, but not something the Haugen family is unaccustomed to. 

One of the inside jokes amongst the Haugen family of Sturgis is that oldest daughter Landry didn’t walk until she was two years old. As the story goes Haugen grew up in a blue semi-truck while her parents Dee and Tyler Haugen were chasing their rodeo dreams and didn’t walk because she had been cramped up in a car-seat the first few years of her life. 

All grown up, Haugen will be representing Team South Dakota at the National High School Finals Rodeo for a fourth consecutive year. At the recently completed South Dakota High School Rodeo finals Haugen won the goat tying and girls cutting competitions. She finished second in the reined cow horse competition and tied for fourth in breakaway roping. 

“It is a very big deal when you go to nationals for Team 605,” she said. “Rodeo is such an individual sport but it is super cool to come from a rodeo state and hear things from other people like you are the state that didn’t shut down during the COVID-19 Pandemic.” 

In the goat tying competition at the South Dakota state finals Haugen came in with a ton of points following successful runs in the regional rodeos.

After a slight bobble and a 7.4 second run in the first go-round in Fort Pierre, Haugen put it all together for her final two runs. 

“On my second ride I had a 6.7 that was slightly faster than anyone else,” she said. “In the short go round I ran a 6.5 and I don’t know anyone that’s ever gone that fast in that arena.” 

For goat tying and breakaway roping Haughen rode a family horse ‘Scratchy’, a horse her mother Dee first worked with. 

“Mom roped on him and I guess I finished him,” she said. “The super cool thing is we grew up together and the really special thing is I know what he’s going to do before he does it. He’s an amazing equine athlete.” 

Haugen rode a mare named Molly for the reined cow horse competition. In the girls cutting competition Haugen rode a horse named Jeff that was borrowed from the Krago family of Belle Fourche. 

“We are really grateful for them letting us use him,” she said. “Cutting is one of those events that requires great attention to detail and Jeff helped me clean up all those little things.”

For the immediate future Haugen plans on heading to Guthrie, Oklahoma, to watch her siblings compete in the Little Britches Rodeo competition. After that she’ll be looking for a few amateur rodeos to keep her and her horses sharp. 

“If you stop right now you won’t be as prepared for nationals,” she said. “I’m just going to keep my horses feeling good and ready to compete.” 

This fall, Haugen will take her talents to the University of Wyoming where her love of the sport will carry her for the next four years. 

“All of that waking up early and the blood, sweat and tears put in. I've always eaten, drank and slept rodeo because I love the sport,” she said. “The other thing I love about this sport is the relationship with the animals.They are like your children and every time they go out to compete they give you everything they have.”