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Athlete of the Week: Wilderness Rodeos Help Makenzie Mayes Gain Ground in the Standings

With just a couple of months left in the season, Makenzie Mayes has put herself in a great position to qualify for her first NFR.
Emery Mask|
Makenzie Mayes
Makenzie Mayes | Nathan Meyer Photography

After finishing twenty-fourth in the WPRA World Standings during her rookie year, Makenzie Mayes has her sights set on her first NFR qualification.

Throughout the season, Mayes and her team have made exceptional runs, winning or placing at 40% of the rodeos she entered. With stops in Kansas, Utah, New Mexico, and beyond this past week, Mayes racked up a good chunk of change towards her Las Vegas dreams.

Dodge City Roundup

In Dodge City, Kansas, Mayes and her 8-year-old mare, Chicado Moon, aka “Rousey”, took home the average title after clocking 51.42 seconds across three rounds of competition.

The team's Round 1 time of 17.66 qualified them for the evening performance in the second round. Mayes and Rousey clocked three-tenths off the arena record with an impressive 16.92 to win the round and qualify for the finals.

In the finals, Mayes ran the fastest time of the entire rodeo, crossing the eye in 16.84 seconds to win the round and the Dodge City Roundup Rodeo title. During her time at the roundup, Mayes pocketed $8,672.

Heading Up North

After placing fourth at the Cache County Fair and Rodeo in 2025 with a 17.14, Mayes bested her 2025 time by almost two tenths of a second at the 2026 rodeo.

The 2025 Resistol Rookie of the Year made the most of her trip to the Beehive State by placing third in Logan, Utah, after running an impressive 16.99 and adding $4,413 to her earnings.

To cap off her week, Mayes won an additional $1,516 in Idaho. She had a phenomenal run at the Jerome County Fair and Rodeo, where she ran a 16.91 on a WPRA standard pattern. Her sub-17-second run landed her in fourth place behind new arena record holder Anita Ellis and a few other talented cowgirls.

Land of Enchantment

Makenzie Mayes
Makenzie Mayes | Fernando Sam-Sin

Before her trip to the rodeos in the wilderness circuit, Mayes added $1,289 to her name during her first trip to the Lea County PRCA Rodeo in Lovington, New Mexico. She ran a 17.52 to place tenth at the highest-paying rodeo of the week.

World Standings

In the race for her first trip to the Thomas and Mack Center, the Scroggins, Texas cowgirl has won $89,830.84 and currently sits in the twelfth position in the WPRA World Standings. As for the CINCH Playoff Series Standings, Mayes is in fifth place with 834.26 points, looking to her first trip to the Governor's Cup to potentially push her farther up in the standings.

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Emery Mask
EMERY MASK

Emery Mask is from Amarillo, Texas, where she was raised in a rodeo family. She competed throughout her youth and later advanced to collegiate rodeo. Emery represented South Plains College twice at the College National Finals Rodeo before continuing her education and rodeo career at Tarleton State University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in agricultural communications. Emery is now an active member of the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association, with a Mountain States Circuit Finals qualification to her name. She also runs her own media business, Little Power Proof Creatives, and spends her free time pursuing a variety of creative hobbies. Whether she’s in the arena or behind the lens, Emery is passionate about celebrating the Western lifestyle through both competition and storytelling.

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