Kristen Sublette

Lake Mehalic, 22, a barrel racer from Wellington, Colorado just made her first trip to Ram National Circuit Finals. Lake is one to watch as she sits second in the Central Rocky Mountain region for the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association. She placed fourth in the average and won the year end title at Mountain State Circuit Finals in October and placed top 10 at Ram Nationals.

Qualifying for Ram National Circuit Finals has been one of the proudest moments of Lake’s career. This is the first time Lake has qualified to go to Mountain State Circuit Finals as well as Ram National Circuit Finals, “It was incredible,” she says.

Her exciting career has not come without struggle. She has had to change her game over the past two years after a disastrous sophomore year in college in which she hit a barrel at almost every competition. To change her game, Lake knew she had to change her mind, so she hired a mental coach.

“I think that everyone in rodeo should have one,” Lake says. She speaks to having such a negative mindset going into competitions that she hated rodeoing. She used to tell herself, “you suck, why are you entered, you aren’t going to win,” to try to psyche herself up to do good before competing. Now, all that has changed. She not only loves rodeoing again but has real tools to walk herself through her runs, she has her own mantra, she visualizes her runs, and she won’t even think or say the word “h-i-t.”

If Lake’s mindset has anything to do with it, she will be at Wrangler National Finals Rodeo within the next couple of years.