Emma Brungardt, who was named Miss Teen Rodeo Kansas 2024, was killed in a single-vehicle crash Friday, KAKE-TV reported. The 19-year-old was pronounced dead at the scene after the vehicle she was riding in hit a tree.
Brungardt and five others were traveling on County Road 21 near Colby at 9:45 p.m. when the accident occurred. The Ford F250 pickup they were riding in veered out of its lane and smashed into a tree.
The driver and other passengers were taken to the hospital, but Brungardt was pronounced dead at the scene. The other passengers included four members of her rodeo team. Nobody has been charged in the crash.
As a sophomore at Colby Community College, Brungardt was studying equine management and production. Her rodeo events included breakaway, goat tying, and team roping.
Brungardt's death came as a shock to her community. As the current title holder of Miss Teen Rodeo Kansas, the pageant memorialized the young woman on social media.
"The Miss Rodeo Kansas Pageant would like to express our deepest condolences to the family of Emma Brungardt, our beautiful Miss Teen Rodeo Kansas 2024. 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," the organization posted to Facebook on Saturday.
"We will miss her contagious smile and one in a million personality. Please keep her family and friends in your prayers as they navigate through this unimaginable loss," Miss Rodeo Kansas wrote.
Colby Community College Rodeo similarly memorialized the teen in a post on Facebook. "Emma was a sweet soul who picked up other people and always had a positive attitude. Her light will live on in and around the rodeo arena," the Colby CC Rodeo account said.
According to USA Today, Brungardt was a young woman with big dreams and a bright future. "In my family, I am the first generation to rodeo," Brungardt stated in her Miss Rodeo Kansas Pageant biography.
"Rodeo became a part of my life after the loss of my brother, Joseph," Brungardt said. There are seven children in her family, and the late rodeo star was the fifth born.
Brungardt won grand champion at the Kansas Wild Horse Youth Challenge in 2019 and 2021, competing for four years in the contest. The young woman was also proud of attending college on a scholarship.
"I dream of becoming the first person in my family to complete a college degree," Brungardt said. She also enjoyed being outdoors and taking care of her Mustang horses, which she would ride often.
The passing of this bright young woman with a promising future is a terrible tragedy. Her life was cut short just as it was becoming the woman she wanted to be.
