The Iowa State Fair Queen and a packed grandstand audience were in attendance for the crowning of next year’s Guthrie County Fair Queen Sunday night.

After months of interviews and preparation, the 2020 queen is Rylee Sloss of the US Sunbeams 4-H Club. The Guthrie Center resident is a junior at Adair-Casey/Guthrie Center High School and is also involved in cross country, track, speech, Leo Club, and the Guthrie County Youth Committee. Sloss shares how she felt being named next year’s queen, “I did not expect it at all, it’s very exciting. (I’m) very excited to start my reign January 1st.”

Sloss will assume her duties following the 2019 fair queen Taylor Lemke, which includes attending several town celebrations, competing in the 2020 state fair queen contest, and representing next year’s county fair. Sloss says what she’s looking forward to next year, “I’m really excited to meet all the new people and just get to know everybody to a different extent.”

Jaden Johnson of Stuart was named first runner up, and Ruby Hummel of Yale was named second runner up. Alyson Embleton, Sally Jo Geckler, and Keely Vasey also competed.