Elizabeth Miranda (left) poses with all of her accolades alongside brother Daniel Miranda after being crowned reserve All-Around Cowgirl at the National High School Finals Rodeo last week in Gillette, Wyo. Photos courtesy of Morag Miranda
Elizabeth Miranda and Emily Coflin led an unprecedented showing for Maui County competitors at the National High School Finals Rodeo last week in Gillette, Wyo., with top-10 finishes in the All-Around Cowgirl standings.
Miranda, a rising junior at Seabury Hall from Kula, was second — or reserve champion — in the All-Around Cowgirl standings that are calculated on a competitor’s cumulative score from three events in the rodeo.
Coflin, an online-school rising senior in Acellus Academy from Pukalani, was 10th All-Around Cowgirl.
“That’s really neat, for me coming from Hawaii, it’s something that not many little kids on Maui or even in the whole state think about,” Miranda said. “You’re just kind of up there coming from this little state: ‘Oh, I’m just coming from this little state, I’m not as competitive,’ but going up there and being reserve all-around and fifth in the world (in breakaway roping), it means a lot because now I can say, ‘This little island in the middle of the ocean actually is just as competitive as all these other states.’ “
Miranda finished fifth overall in breakaway roping with an average time of 7.67 seconds — the winner of the event was Kieley Walz of Nebraska at 6.19. Molokai’s Bailey Sproat was 131st in the same event.
Elizabeth Miranda and Emily Coflin (in photo) and Kahiwa Augustiro (third photo) pose with their awards after their performances at the National High School Finals Rodeo.
Coflin was seventh and Miranda was also 11th in reined cow horse.
Miranda scored 836.66 points in the all-around standings, finishing behind only Kate Eiland of Kentwood, La., who scored 960.00 points. Coflin’s all-around total was 440.00.
Miranda also performed in cutting and team roping in the NHSFR, which draws hundreds of qualifiers from 47 states and three countries.
After several years of competing on the Mainland, Miranda has made several friends there — her older brother Daniel Miranda is a former NHSFR qualifier from Maui who just finished a standout freshman year of college rodeo at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.
“They were cheering me on,” Elizabeth Miranda said. “I’ve got a lot of friends up there and we’ve grown up and kind of been to all the rodeos together and I’ve watched them succeed and cheered them on as they’ve won, so it’s kind of like a two-way street in that we both support each other when we do good and cheer on each other. We’re in each other’s corner no matter if I’m winning or they’re winning.”
Kahiwa Augustiro
Elizabeth Miranda and her parents, Ken and Morag, stopped in California on the way to Gillette — they picked up Daniel and his horse for the 20-hour drive to Wyoming. Elizabeth Miranda borrowed a horse for the reined cow horse event and used her brother’s horse for her other events.
Ken and Daniel Miranda took turns on the 20-hour drive back to California from the NHSFR that ran July 16-22 — Elizabeth and her parents will return home on Friday.
“Hershey,” Daniel Miranda’s horse that Elizabeth borrowed, was named AQHA Breakaway Horse of the Year at an event in conjunction with the NHSFR.
Emily Coflin is the younger sister of Laura Coflin, who finished second in the girls cutting event at the NHSFR in 2020. Emily Coflin competed in cutting, reined cow horse and pole bending this year.
“It’s definitely pretty cool to be representing Maui and having us two girls do well over there — it was pretty awesome,” Coflin said.
Coflin is a veteran of the Mainland youth rodeo circuit with her close friend Elizabeth Miranda, but she never gets tired of showing the Mainlanders just what young rodeo competitors from Maui County can do.
“It’s so cool, especially when you go up there and some of those people, half of them don’t even know there’s rodeo over in Maui,” Coflin said. “So, they’re all like so surprised. A few people up there, they’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, I didn’t know the Maui kids were going to be kicking our butts over here.’ “
Frank Bonacorsi of Makawao was 43rd overall in boys cutting, 50th in steer wrestling and 58th in tie-down roping.
Molokai’s Kahiwa Augustiro was 56th overall in steer wrestling and he won the seventh go-round at 4.45 seconds — the fifth-best time in go-2.
Nanea Bonacorsi of Makawao was 53rd, Emily Coflin was 68th and Miranda was 96th in girls cutting.
Eva Jarman of Makawao was 125th and Nanea Bonacorsi was 181st in goat tying.
Luna Milligan of Kula was 163rd in barrel racing.
The Maui County showings helped the Hawaii team finish 24th overall and 11th in the Division 2 standings.
Perhaps Emily Coflin summed it up best in the end — the partnership of friend pushing friend on the high school rodeo circuit between Coflin and Miranda will continue for one more year.
The pair met when Miranda was in the second grade and Coflin was in the third grade.
“I think we’re all very supportive of each other so it definitely makes it very (much) like a team effort, kind of all together,” Coflin said.
* Robert Collias is at rcollias@mauinews.com.
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