Comal County Fair Duchess Claire Schaeferkoeter celebrates with fair queen Peyton Wirebaugh and princess Jacy Welch.

Courtly af-fair

Junior Claire Schaeferkoeter wins duchess crown

Junior Claire Schaeferkoeter received the title of Comal County Fair Duchess Sept. 18 at the fair queen contest.

The 2022 fair queen is Peyton Wirebaugh of Canyon High School, and the princess is Jacy Welch of New Braunfels High School.

The contest involved three out of town judges and scores were dependent on poise, personality and personal appearance.

“There were eight other contestants,” Schaeferkoeter said, “and we had to do an interview and then a beauty pageant.”

The girls were asked questions about who they were, why they wanted to be queen, and what they were excited about for the future.

Schaeferkoeter decided she wanted to be involved in the fair queen contest after she witnessed her friend and brother’s involvement in it years ago.

“My friend’s older sister used to compete for fair queen, and my brother was her escort.” Schaeferkoeter said. “I saw her doing it and thought that it looked cool.”

Schaeferkoeter will be escorted by Dylan Wunderlich, a junior at Canyon Lake High School, today during the Grand March to present the court to the county.

To be eligible, the contestants had to be single and either a sophomore or junior in a Comal County school.

The girls’ duties involve helping out around the fair as well as participating in all the parades around the state of Texas. They also help to hand out ribbons at the stock show.

“The queen, princess, and duchess all do pretty much the same thing, they just have higher titles.” Schaeferkoeter said.

The Comal County Fair takes places through Sunday.