BELLE FOURCHE - The reigning 2006 South Dakota High School Rodeo Association Queen, Kristina Maddocks of Hecla, will retain her crown for another year.

Maddocks was crowned 2007 Miss South Dakota High Rodeo Sunday during state high school championships in Belle Fourche.

"National competition last year was a really good experience, and I wanted to go back and represent our team again," she said. "I was really surprised at how helpful everyone in the association was."

The high school senior added, "This year I was more experienced, but I was more nervous than last year. It was a good contest. The other girls didn't let me run off with it."

Maddocks competed in her first queen contest when she was 13 years old "at a local PRCA rodeo at the fair in Aberdeen."

At this weekend's rodeo, she competed in the queen contest, pole bending and barrel racing.

In the queen contest, she won the photogenic, appearance and horsemanship categories.

"Appearance is more of a general appearance, rather than just how nice your clothes are," she said. "It's a matter of, are your boots clean? Is your hat shaped? How does your hair look?"

The queen horsemanship includes a couple of mandatory patterns such as flag laps and the queen run. The other part consists of maneuvers such as figure eights, speed changes and direction changes.

"It's how well you can handle your horse in different situations," she said, adding that she was in Belle Fourche for the state junior queen competition the year South Dakota Rodeo Queen Marie Schaller rode the American flag into the Roundup arena in sunshine and was hit by 80 mile-per-hour winds, dust, flying tree branches and papers halfway through the Star Spangled Banner.

The kind of horsemanship that kept Marie's horse under control is what a rodeo queen needs to master, she said.

Maddocks rode a small horse, "Lace," in the competition at Belle Fourche.

"She's a nice small horse - easy to get up and down. She's the horse I usually ride for queen competition." She said the horse is good at carrying flags, "but can have her moments."

"There's something about those poles," she grinned. "They seem to have magnets in them. I have a young horse coming up that I hope to run next spring."

A Hecla ranch girl, Maddocks says it is nice to get away once in a while to shop, "but it's really nice to be around small towns where you know everyone. I just like being out where I can see and not be boxed in."

She said the Belle Fourche rodeo grounds were really nice and the community was friendly.

"We always have a good time here and manage to stay out of trouble," she said. "The programs here are really good. Everyone has been more than welcoming in Belle Fourche."

Maddocks said, "I would just encourage everyone to come watch the state finals here next year. It's a great opportunity to see the cowboys and cowgirls as the good athletes they definitely are."

Maddocks plans to attend college to be a large animal veterinarian although she hasn't decided on a school.

But her next challenge will be competing with the South Dakota team at the national high school rodeo competition in Springfield, Ill. She said she hopes to represent high school rodeo at the Black Hills Roundup PRCA rodeo and the state rodeo queen contest July 2-4.