SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. -- The Mount Holyoke College equestrian team took first place once again in the final show of the fall regular season on Saturday, taking first place among 10 teams at their second home show at the MHC Equestrian Center.

Mount Holyoke scored 39 points to outpace runner-up UMass-Amherst by six.

Award winners for the Lyons included junior Ririka Kakuta, the High Point Champion Introductory Rider; junior Cate Bates, the High Point Champion Limit Rider; senior Chloe McElveen, the Reserve High Point Rider and the High Point Champion Limit Rider; junior Helena Weiss, the Champion High Point Rider, and senior Elliott Candela, the Introductory High Point Rider.

The morning competition began with three Open Fences riders in Weiss, junior Camille Cheng, and senior Emmie Mirarchi placing first second and third, respectively.

In two classes of Intermediate Fences, Bates placed first and senior Hayley Halloran just out of the ribbons in the first class, and sophomore Hallie Phillips took fourth place in a strong second class.

Following with three Limit Fences classes: McElveen and first-year Carly Bitler finished first and fourth, respectively, in the first. In hte second, first-year Eliza Mutz and junior Madison Hurley placed third and sixth, respectively. Sophomore Charlotte Subak and first-year Montserrat Hartwig placed first and second, respectively, in the the third class.

The fences were removed and the show moved on to the flat portion of the day, beginning with two classes of Pre-Novice Flat. First-years Savella Riccio and Savannah Ma placed fifth and sixth, respectively, in the first class. Senior Astrid Zhao then put down a phenomenal ride to win first place in a strong second class, concluding her four years of IHSA showing on a strong note.

In the first class of Open Flat, Weiss took first place and Mirarchi placed second.

In the fist of two Introductory Flat classes, Kakuta placed first and junior Amy Fujioka placed second. Senior Lingdang Zhang finished second in the second class.

Following that were four Limit Flat classes. In hte first, senior Sunita Pearson-Siegel placed third and Hurley placing just out of the class. In the second class, Cheng and Hartwig returned to place third and fifth, respectively. In the third class, McElveen took first place, and Mutz placed second in the fourth class.

In two classes of Intermediate Flat, Halloran placed fifth in the first and Bates placed second in the second.

Finally came three Novice Flat classes. In the first, Candela placed first, while first-year Grace Neumuth took sixth place. Sophomore Josie Nicholas placed third in the second class, and in the third, junior Mara Downie won the blue ribbon.

Qualifying for regionals in the spring were Weiss in Open Fences, Mirarchi in Open Flat, Cheng in Limit Flat, and Candela in Novice Flat.

Team Standings
1. Mount Holyoke (39)
2. UMass-Amherst (33)
3. Springfield (28)
4. Bentley (24)
5. Worcester State (22)
6. WPI (21)
7. Amherst (15)
8. Smith (11)
9. Bennington (4)
10. Williams (2)

-- Reporting by Dekyi Deji