By Robert Williams

Editor

iss Frazee 2026 Katie Courneya is not a big crier, but there were tears flowing when she watched her little sister Rachael accept the Miss Frazee Teen 2026 crown moments before her own coronation.

“I was really happy and I was, oh my gosh, this is really happening,” Katie said.

The “Sister Queens” brought a rare first to the historical Miss Frazee pageant in the first pair of sisters to sweep the crowns. The Courneyas also continued a family tradition. 

Three of their great aunts on the Courneya side were Miss Frazee winners: Judy (1961), Cathy (1964) and Julie (1973).

“I actually didn’t know they had run until I won Teen and then I heard their name mentioned for one of the scholarships,” Katie said. “I think it’s cool that we’re able to carry on the tradition.”

Katie and Rachael’s grandfather relayed a tale of another family tradition when he described Julie Courneya baling hay and then going to sit on a parade float as Miss Frazee.

“Hey, just like us; we were stacking wood before going to the Turkey Days parade,” Katie said amid laughter from both girls.

Katie’s pageant future is likely finished in 2027, depending on where she chooses to go to college and if there is a local pageant available connected to the Miss Minnesota pageant and her college schedule allows time for competing.

Rachael has her sights set on matching Katie’s three-peat from Miss Frazee Teen to Miss Vergas and Miss Frazee by adding both of those titles after a run from Princess Altona in Vergas next year. Add that to her Turkey Days Junior Queen 2018 title and she could finish her high school years with an amazing five crowns.

A big part of the sister’s pageant successes are unique displays of talent. Their routines are unconventional, yet engaging. They certainly give the judges something unusual. Katie performed basketball handling drills synchronized to music. 

While the ideas seem fresh or post-modern, they really come out of necessity for both girls.

“At least for me, I really wanted to do pageants since I was little but I’m not good at singing; I’m not good at dancing; what the heck am I going to do?” said Katie. “I love dribbling a basketball; why not do it to the beat of a song? I can make that work and it’s something that a lot of people would like watching. Just building that up; working on skills, and finding different moves that are appealing on stage.”

Local pageant fans will also have noticed Katie’s routine having evolved greatly since its debut at the 2022 Miss Frazee Teen pageant.

She has also seen the impact working her talent outside the box has had on girls in the community. 

“You can embrace who you are without having to change who you are,” she said. “I’ve actually had a couple little girls ask me to give tutorials on basketball so I’m going to do that later.”

Rachael was obviously influenced, as well. However, she has taken her talent routine a step further with a full circuit workout that ends with cleaning 135 pounds – it is not the average pageant routine, but her reasons for doing it are similar to her sister’s.

“Same as her – I can’t sing; I can’t dance, but when I was injured – I tore my meniscus and I started doing pull-ups every day,” Rachael said. “That got me into weightlifting and I decided I wanted to do a pull-up routine and I started adding things into it like jump rope, hang-cleans and a bunch of gymnastics moves and it went on from there.”

Rachael also had some assistance from Miss Frazee 2023 Hailey Selly, who helped choreograph the routine.

Both routines stand out during the pageant and get loud and encouraging ovations from the crowd, which has to influence the judges.

“It’s an entertainment thing; it’s something different that might shock them a little bit,” Katie said. 

One thing that may surprise readers is the sisters are not three-sport Hornet athletes. They’re four-sport athletes.

Rachael competes in cross country, volleyball, wrestling, and track and field. Katie is in volleyball, basketball, softball and track and field. She is also part of the group of students that brought the speech program back to Frazee.

After garnering both crowns in Frazee, Rachael had to withdraw from the Miss Altona pageant in Vergas, while Katie was on stage all night as the bearer of two crowns, the reigning Miss Frazee and the outgoing Miss Vergas. After the pageant’s conclusion, the Courneya family took a vacation and brought the crowns directly to New York City.

“It was a huge, huge city – much different than Frazee,” said Katie. “Even going to Chicago with band this year and then going to New York – it was like three Chicagos.”

“It really gave the big city image – things you always see in the movies,” said Rachael.

The Courneyas toured all the popular tourist sites, Empire State Building, the Freedom Tower, a Broadway Show, etc., but the family also had distinct plans to be up early to try to get on the Today Show.

“My mom looked into the details for it and we just made a couple signs and brought our crowns and sash,” said Katie. “We were lucky enough to have the producers pick us to do a little shout out and we were right in the camera for the cooking segment of the show.”

“It made me very hungry,” said Rachael.

There was little time for a break upon returning from the Big Apple. The girls were on a tight itinerary and were back in time for appearances at Wolf Lake’s Harvest Festival.

“You get a lot of candy at Wolf Lake,” Rachael laughed.

“At the end of the parade, I picked up my dress and put the candy in the dress and walked away…it works!” said Katie.

Pageants are not all dresses and candy, they also allow contestants to choose a platform to champion, typically a specific social, cultural, or community cause. 

Katie’s platform is, “Girl involvement today creates women leaders tomorrow,” about advocating for, especially youth in our community, their involvement in school activities and community activities.

“I would not have had the opportunities or skills I’ve had or the positions in leadership things that I have accomplished without my involvement in pretty much everything that my school and our community has to offer,” she said.

Katie is also using her Miss Frazee title to help the school out by speaking to the seventh grade orientation class. 

“I want to get them used to the school and let them know they should join a sport or a club, make some friends and have some new experiences, especially coming into seventh grade because it’s scary,” Katie said.

Rachael’s platform is, “Home of the free because of the brave,” helping, honoring and treating veterans like they have treated us.

“Really announcing a thank you to them because they do so much for us,” she said. “Even though we don’t really give them much back.”

Honoring veterans also touches home for this year’s Miss Frazee Teen.

“We have many uncles and grandparents that have been in the army and we’ve heard a bunch of stories and have seen what has happened, so I really want to give back to them for doing all that,” she said.

Rachael is taking her pageant routine a step farther, mixing in her platform, and turning them into a challenge for the month of September.

Beginning Sept. 1, she will do 18 push-ups a day to represent the 18 veterans who die by suicide daily in the United States. Her goal is to raise awareness about the need to support those individuals who have fought for our freedoms.  

During the month, if anyone would like to donate to her cause, she will use the money raised to then purchase American flags. She will make these flags available to people in the community, for example, if she sees a flag that is tattered and needs to be replaced or handing them out to people during military holidays to encourage flags waving in our community. 

The Sister Queens are busy preparing for Katie’s senior year and Rachael moving into eighth grade. Mixing school, extracurricular activities and the demands of the crowns will make for a busy 2026-27.

Fortunately, the sisters get along.

“Sometimes, in public we get along,” Katie laughed.

“It’s pretty easy too,” Rachael said.

Being so close makes planning easier and they can have a two-fold effect on community events. Recently, Katie helped host a United Way blood drive, while Rachael baked cookies for those who came to donate blood at a Vitalant drive.

Keep your eyes peeled for the Courneya girls in crowns. If the Sister Queens are in attendance something big is happening.