BERLIN, Mass. – It was another victorious day for the Mount Holyoke College riding team, which secured its fifth consecutive high point collegiate title with a win at the Worcester State University Show. The event, which was hosted at Maplewood Farm, saw the Lyons notch 38 points to hold off second-place Smith (29 points).

The first class in the ring of the day was Open Fences with a large group of riders. Senior Rachael Fulop, sophomore Sara Hearn, and senior Emma Recchi made stunning trips to finish fourth, sixth, and reserve, respectively, in a competitive class.

Next in the ring was Intermediate Fences which saw junior Indra Rapinchuk-Souccar and senior Lily DeBenedictis both have lovely rides to place second and reserve, respectively.

The ring then turned to two classes of Novice Fences. In the first section, senior Jordan Green rode beautifully to finish third. First years Kristina Lester and Faith Wang followed in the next section to make stunning trips to finish one-two.

The jumping portion of the day was wrapped up by Alumni Fences, where Lyons assistant coach and UConn Alum, Tara Mathews made a beautiful round for second. After flat schooling, Mathews returned to the ring for Alumni Flat. She had another lovely ride to secure first place.

Open Flat was up next as Recchi had a strong ride for first. Two splits of Intermediate Flat came next as the first saw DeBenedictis deliver a beautiful ride to finish second. In the next section, Fulop returned to the ring with a lovely ride for fifth.

Three sections of Novice Flat were next up on the schedule. In the first section, sophomore Libby Sams and junior Abby Watkins both had solid rides for second and sixth, respectively. In the next section, senior Tess Ahlers finished her class in second with a beautiful ride. The Novice Flat division was wrapped up by stunning rides from Green and Hearn to finish in second and fourth, respectively.

Advanced Walk-Trot-Canter followed and in the first section, sophomore Sinead O'Sullivan and first year Anya Benson delivered solid rides for first and third, respectively. In the second section, first year Genevieve Franck had a lovely ride for sixth. Beginner Walk-Trot-Canter was next in the ring as junior Honami Tanaka had a nice ride to secure first place.

Three sections of Walk-Trot wrapped up the day. The first section saw senior Jessica Feng deliver a strong ride for a blue ribbon. In the second section, junior Daphne Schneewind had a good ride to finish in second place. In the last section, junior Angela Cheng rode beautifully to post fifth. This marked Cheng's IHSA debut

At the end of the day, Mount Holyoke College was named overall High Point College with 38 points, followed by Smith College with 29 points. Additionally, Green was named Reserve High Point Novice Rider of the day.

Congratulations to the following riders for qualifying for regionals today:

Sara Hearn - Novice Flat
Jessica Feng - Walk-Trot

Overall Team Results:

Mount Holyoke College - 38 points
Smith College - 29 points
UMass Amherst - 27 points
Hampshire College -24 points
Amherst College - 15 points
Worcester State University - 13 points
Williams College - 12 points
Westfield State University - 4 points
Bennington College - 3 points

Mount Holyoke will head into the end of the fall season with a regional lead of 44 points as they host their second show of the semester on Saturday at the MHC Equestrian Center. Action begins at 9am.

Recap courtesy of MHC rider, Honami Tanaka. Photo courtesy of RJB Sports Photography.