The 2024 Miss Teen Rodeo Kansas died in a single-vehicle wreck on Friday night that injured five others, including her rodeo teammates, in rural Thomas County.
Emma C. Brungardt of Blue Rapids died at the scene of the wreck, which was reported at 9:44 p.m. on County Road 21. She was 19.
The driver, an 18-year-old Flagler, Colorado, man driving a 2007 Ford F-250 truck, and four other passengers were all taken to Citizens Medical Center in Colby after they all complained of pain.
The other passengers included a 20-year-old Larned woman, 19-year-old Newton woman, 19-year-old Galva woman and an 18-year-old Council Grove man.
Brungardt was on the Colby Community College Rodeo Team. The team said in a Facebook post that the wreck included “4 other team members and our work study.”
“Emma was a sweet soul who picked up other people and always had a positive attitude,” the post says. “Her light will live on in and around the rodeo arena.”
The wreck happened at a Y intersection on County Road 21 and a private drive. The driver, headed south, went “between the Y striking a tree row,” a Kansas Highway Patrol trooper wrote in crash report. The vehicle came to a rest upright, facing south in the tree row.
“Emma was a true gem and horsewoman who embodied what it meant to be a rodeo queen, always going above and beyond what was expected of her,” Miss Rodeo Kansas Pageant said on Facebook. “We will miss her contagious smile and one in a million personality.”
The post included a photo of Brungardt wearing a cowboy hat with a buckle that says Miss Teen Rodeo Kansas.
“She was simply incredible,” one person commented on the post. “In all ways imaginable, especially in being a cowgirl.”
Another person wrote: “Emma was amazing!!! She was a fantastic representative of (Miss Rodeo Kansas) when I got to be with her at the Flint Hills Rodeo in Strong City. Her poise, personality, and horsemanship were impeccable! She was so kind and gracious to young and old alike.”
Brungardt, a sophomore, competed in goat tying, breakaway and team roping with the CCC Rodeo Team. She started going there on scholarship after attending Valley Heights USD 498.
“As a first-generation cowgirl, Emma has immersed herself in the western way of life becoming involved in FFA in high school and coming in the Kansas Wild Horse Youth Challenge for 4 years, winning grand champion in 2019 and 2021,” according to her profile on Miss Rodeo Kansas. “She competed in the Kansas High School Rodeo Association for 2 years.”
