Riding Wins Third-Straight High Point College Title at Home on Saturday

South Hadley, Mass. - March 8, 2020 - The Mount Holyoke College varsity hunt seat team closed out the regular season in impressive fashion as the Lyons produced 43 points en route to their third-consecutive High Point College Title in a show that was hosted in the MHC Equestrian Center. The Lyons were also named Champion High Point College for the Year at the end of the day.

Following Mount Holyoke College was UMass Amherst with 30 points, followed by Worcester State (23), while Bennington College (12) and Williams College (12) tied for fourth.

Following a powerful national-anthem performance from Angela Cheng (Shanghai, China), action began with Open Fences, where junior Sara Hearn (Tallahassee, Fla.) finished second overall, followed by Indra Rapinchuk-Souccar (Cummington, Mass.), who took fourth and Franny Eremeeva (Northampton, Mass.), who was sixth.

Next up was two sections of Intermediate Fences, the first of which had Kristina Lester (West Suffield, Conn.) and Harriet Thomson (Paddington, Australia), who finished first and second overall, respectively, before Emelia McLaughlin (Portland, Maine) won the next section with a beautiful round.

Next was five splits of Limit Fences. First-year Johanna Sullivan (Worcester, Mass.) was first in the opening class, followed by Sabrina Talir (Kirkwood, Mo.), who was fifth. Next, Kristina Honour (Lake Forest, Ill.) was victorious in her section, before Claire Williams (Zionsville, Ind.) and Ana Earle (Baltimore, Md.) took fourth and sixth in their group. Sarah Etzel (Northampton, Mass.) also won her section, followed by Shemica Adenwalla (Dubai, United Arab Emirates), who was second. In the last split, senior Honami Tanaka (Fukuoka City, Japan) and Maya Brody (Weatogue, Conn.) both had great rides for third and fourth, respectively. This was an IHSA debut for Williams and Adenwalla.

In the first section of Crossrail classes, Sinead O'Sullivan (Worcester, Mass.) won, while Anya Benson (Amherst, Mass.) took fourth overall, before Carol Law (Belchertown, Mass.) made her jumping debut, finishing fifth overall.

After schooling, Intermediate Flat kicked off the second portion of the day, where McLaughlin earned third in the first section, followed by a first-place finish for Etzel and third-place result for Thomson.

Novice was next, where Aihua Boothroyd (Maynard, Mass.) represented Mount Holyoke and won the class with a strong ride.

Up next was Open Flat where Hearn picked up the win, followed by a second-place finish from Eremeeva and a fifth-place result from Rapinchuk-Souccar.

Four sections of Limit Flat followed next, where Williams and Honour returned to the ring to deliver second and fourth-place performances, before Brody and sophomore Tori Fletcher (Branford, Conn.) were up next, as Brody finished second and Fletcher followed taking sixth. In the third section, Talir and Tanaka produced lovely rides to finish first and third, respectively, in their Limit Flat debut. Closing out were more stunning rides from Lester and Adenwalla as Lester won and Adenwalla was sixth.

The ring then moved to Pre-Novice with two sections. In the first, Daniela Fraser (Vero Beach, Fla.) was second, followed by Hanye Chen (Dachang, China) who was third. In the second section, the ring saw a strong ride from first-year Rachel Banister (San Diego, Calif.), who won.

Concluding the day was Introductory, where Xike Zhao (Shenyang, China) took first in the first section, before Crystal Yuan (Ningbo, China) followed with a runner-up performance. In the second section, Dorothy Wang (Jinan, China) won her class with an elegant ride.

At day's end, Lester and Etzel were called back along with another rider from the region for additional testing, and Lester was announced High Point Rider and Etzel was Reserve High Point Rider after demonstrating strong rides without stirrups. Additionally, McLaughlin claimed Intermediate High Point honors and Williams earned a Reserve Limit High Point title.

Mount Holyoke College will next compete on Saturday, March 28 and will travel to Maplewood Farm in Berlin, Mass for Regional Championships.

For the latest updates on Mount Holyoke College Athletics, follow the Lyons on social media on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Congratulations to the following riders for qualifying for regionals today: