Riding Victorious in Final Fall Show; Remain Undefeated in the Region

SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. - The Mount Holyoke Equestrian Team continued its dominance in the final regular season show of the fall semester, winning its own MHC Horse Show by an eight-point margin against the other seven competing teams. The Lyons remain undefeated with a 62-point lead over second-place University of Massachusetts Amherst. Additionally, MHC won all but three classes in which they had riders entered, for a total of 19 wins out of 22 classes.

Mount Holyoke had ten riders show in Open Fences to start the day. Senior Ella Pittman won her section, senior Felica Harrsch placed second, and senior Nell Maynard and junior Maura Zaldonis each came in third, first-years Bridget Finnerty and Emily Allard and junior Heather Zadra placed fifth in their sections and senior Lexie Lohrer was sixth.

The Lyons then swept the first of many divisions today with three wins in Intermediate Fences by juniors Claire Herlin, Jess Murray, and Abby Raucher. In addition, junior Anne Waldo placed third and junior Maddi Shortt received fourth place. The Lyons t hen swept Novice Fences where first-year's Colbie Chinowsky and Allee Platanitis and junior Sam Stone won their sections, first-year Sarah Felman was third overall.

Switching to the flat, the Lyons proceeded to sweep all but one division. In Open Flat, Maynard, Finnerty, and Lohrer each won their sections. Pittman placed second, Harrsch, Thornton, and Herlin received third place, Zaldonis came in fourth, and Vickowski was sixth.

In the Advanced division of Walk-Trot-Canter, senior Catherine Geeslin and junior Emily Bessette won their sections, sophomore Suyin Taunton was third, and first-year Emma Blades and sophomore Heather Armstrong came in fourth place, while in the Beginner section junior Maneh Kotikian won, first-year Haley Lucian was third, and first-year Liana Ghiron came in fifth.

Next came Intermediate flat, where Allard, Raucher, and Waldo each won their sections while Shortt was sixth. In Novice Flat, Felman, Chinowsky, and sophomore Genevieve Couldwell won their sections while sophomore Elizabeth Brija was fourth and first-year Simi Singh-Smith came in fifth. In the final division of the day, Walk-Trot, junior Christine Choo rode well on a tough draw to fifth place.

Mount Holyoke claimed all of the high point awards at the end of the show; with their two first place rides, Chinowsky and Raucher competed in a ride-off for overall High Point rider where Raucher claimed the honors and Chinowsky was named Reserve High Point rider.

In addition, Raucher claimed Intermediate High Point and Chinowsky was Novice High Point. Waldo and Felman both came in third over fences and won their flats to become Intermediate and Novice Reserve High Point riders, respectively.

The following riders also qualified for Regionals at the show:

Genevieve Couldwell - Novice Flat

Abby Raucher - Intermediate Flat

Lexie Lohrer - Open Flat

The team results for the show are:

High Point College - Mount Holyoke College, 36 points

Reserve High Point College - University of Massachusetts Amherst, 30 points

3rd Place - Amherst College, 22 points

4th Place (Tie) - Smith College and Springfield College, 20 points

6th Place - Westfield State University, 19 points

7th Place - Williams College, 16 points

8th Place - Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, 8 points