CL grad earns All-Around championship in Ozark region

CL grad earns All-Around championship in Ozark region

Kallie Agre never stopped tying goats and racing around barrels when she graduated from high school.

Agre earned a rare rodeo scholarship to Missouri Valley College in Marshall, MO for her accomplishments and credentials in her rodeo career as a Chisago Lakes High School student.

However, she didn't slow her rodeo career down when she got to Missouri, she just refined it to be better overall.

After a few chats with the rodeo coach at Missouri Valley College in 2004, Agre visited the campus a few times and decided it's where she wanted to call her home for the next four years.

Although she struggled through her first three years of college, Agre wasn't deterred. "The competition got a lot tougher, and I just had a few confidence problems," Agre said of her early problems. "I went from winning a lot to not on top all the time."

She also had her hands tied with a very tough Biology major, but she didn't let her grades slip at all, earning a 3.93 grade point average in her first semester.

She finally broke through in heer senior year, however, earning the All-Around championship in the Ozark Region with a third place finish in the breakaway event and a fourth place in the goat tying event. For her efforts, she earned a trip to the College National Finals Rodeo (CNFR) and the belt buckle and saddle pictured at right.

Although she was disappointed in her results at the CNFR, Agre is still into rodeo, and after she attends medical school, she hopes to get back in the swing of things. "Girls don't have as many opportunities in rodeo," she said. "Pretty much just barrel racing, and at that level, it takes an expensive horse. I can still do local and amateur stuff, though."

Agre plans to pursue her degree in anesthesiology at the University of Minnesota medical school for the next chapter in her life. She said that she wanted to stay local after being away from family for four years. But, she said she'll always be around the rodeo.

Her knowledge will help the her younger sister Korah, who will be enrolling at MVC this fall on a rodeo scholarship. Check out next week's Chisago County Press for more on Korah Agre.