Lacassine cowgirl Lydia Touchet is used to competing with her older brother Lane at the Louisiana High School Finals Rodeo.

With her brother off to college at Louisiana Tech, she had to go it alone this time, but that didn’t stop her from winning another state championship Tuesday at the Burton Coliseum.

Touchet repeated as the girls cutting state champion, outpointing rookie cowgirl Sadie Steib 48.03 to 43.35.

“It has really been different,” Touchet said of competing without her brother. “He has always been the one, who if I came out of the pin and have a bad go, he tells me ‘You will get them next time, let’s go.’ He is always the light to the bad. So it has been very different.”

The siblings combined last year for three state championships.

Touchet said she has worked on relaxing and consistency over the last year. She scored 71 points in three consecutive rounds riding her 19-year-old American Quarter Horse Association mare Smart Pretty Jewel. She shared the average scoring title with Emma Berry with 213 points over three rounds.

“I just make sure every time I go in there that I cut clean,” Touchet said. “Consistency wins, and I am consistent. I just make sure every cut looks the same. In the last year I have really been working on staying calm to help my horse stay calm because the calmer we are in the herd, the better cut you will get. I have worked on quitting softer, not pulling real hard to quit off a calf.”

Touchet said her schedule has been a bit busier than last year as she has extra duties as Louisiana High School Rodeo Association queen.

“It has made me a little tired this week,” Touchet said. “I definitely had an exhausting week the week before for junior high state finals.

“I was here, there and everywhere. I got to sleep in a little bit on Monday but it has been a tiring week.”

Touchet ran into trouble in her defense of her reined cow horse title and finished fourth with 25.6 points but said she hopes to get another chance next year to regain her title.

“My plans are to continue running barrels and poles, keep working with my trainer in cutting and helping me in reined cow horse and come back and win something next year,” Touchet said.