SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. -- The Mount Holyoke College equestrian team hosted the first IHSA show of the spring season on Saturday at the MHC Equestrian Center and took first place among nine teams, outscoring UMass-Amherst 45 points to 39.
Senior Emmie Mirarchi (Harvard, Mass.) won Reserve High Point Rider honors, while junior Mara Downie (Holyoke, Mass.) was Reserve Novice Rider, sophomore Megan Bliamptis (Lexington, Mass.) claimed High Point Introductory Rider honors, and senior Lingdang Zhang (Chengdu, China) won the Reserve High Point Introductory award.
The show opened with Mirarchi and sophomore Olivia Simon winning the first two sections in Open Fences. Following with two Intermediate Fences classes, senior Hayley Halloran (Lewes, Del.) and sophomore Hallie Phillips (Santa Rosa, Calif.) took sixth and second places in their respective classse. Three Limit Fences classes wrapped up the jumping classes. Senior Sunita Pearson-Siegel (Brooklyn, N.Y.), first-year Montserrat Hartwig (Santa Rosa, Calif.), senior Chloe McElveen (Ridgeland, S.C.), and junior Elliott Candela (Maynard, Mass.) all had excellent rides. Pearson-Siegel, Hartwig and McElveen all took second place and Candela sixth.
Flat Classes
In Introductory Flat, four riders participated in two classes. In the first, Bliamptis and first-year Chloe Zhou (Anhui, China) placed first and third, respectively, in a strong class. In the second, junior Eimi Fujioka (Toda-shi, Japan) and Zhang took third and first places, respectively.
In Novice Flat, first-year Grace Neumuth (Malrborough, Conn.) and sophomore Nora Tripp (Westford, Mass.) finished in second and fifth, respectively. In the second, first-year Chelsey Ding (Dalian, China) and Downie joined the ring with fantastic rides. In the last Novice, sophomore Charlie May (Stockton, N.J.) placed first in the class.
Mirarchi and Simon returned to Open Flat classes with excellent rides, placing first and second, respectively.
Four sections of Limit Flat followed. In the first, Candela placed sixth. Hartwig placed fourth in the second; in the third, McElveen placed second and first-year Carly Bitler (Seymour, Ill.) placed just out of class. In the fourth, Pearson-Seigel returned with a wonderful rider, taking third place.
In two Intermediate Flat classes, junior Camille Cheng (Goleta, Calif.) placed first in one and Halloran took the blue ribbon in the second. Finally in two classes of Pre-Novice Flat, first-year Lainey Nibbio (Glen Ellyn, Ill.) and first-year Christine Niu (East Windsor, N.J.) both had wonderful rides, placing second and fifth, respectively.
Pearson-Siegel qualified for the regional championships in both Limit Flat and Limit Fences, while Mirarchi qualified in Open Fences.
-- Reporting by Dekyi Deji
Mount Holyoke competes again Sunday morning at a UMass-Amherst Show at Muddy Brook Farm in Amherst, Mass.
Team Results
1. Mount Holyoke (45)
2. UMass-Amherst (39)
3. Springfield (28)
4. Bentley (26)
5. WPI (18)
6. Smith (14)
7. Amherst (11)
Worcester St. (11)
9. Bennington (5)
