AMHERST, Mass. -- The Mount Holyoke College equestrian team finished the regular season strong on Sunday at Muddy Brook Farm, winning the final UMass-Amherst Show by a 10-point margin over UMass.
Mount Holyoke scored 42 points at the show, with UMass-Amherst finishing second with 32 points and Springfield third with 25.
It was a star-studded day for the Lyons in the awards department. At the end of the day, senior Chloe McElveen (Ridgeland, S.C.) and first-year Eliza Mutz (Stanford, Calif.) were called back to the arena for additional testing for the High Point Rider title, with McElveen prevailing. Mutz won the Reserve High Point Rider and the High Point Limit Rider honors. Senior Catherine Kazel (Madison, N.J.) won the High Point Introductory and first-year Chloe Zhou (Anhui, China) won the Reserve High Point Introductory.
Additionally, junior Eimi Fujioka (Toda-shi, Japan) qualified for Regionals in Introductory Flat and McElveen did the same in Limit Flat.
Flat Classes
Entering the ring first, senior captain Emmie Mirarchi (Harvard, Mass.) presented a beautiful ride in Open Flat section A, placing first. Following the second Open Flat section, sophomore Olivia Simon (Sacramento, Calif.) put down a wonderful ride and placed second. After that were two classes of Intermediate Flat. Junior Camille Cheng (Goleta, Calif.) went in the first class and had an amazing ride, taking fourth place. Then in the second class, senior Sunita Pearson-Siegel (Brooklyn, N.Y.) had a lovely ride, taking second place.
Five Limit Flat classes followed. In the first class, first-year Carly Bitler (Seymour, Ill.) went into the arena with a fantastic ride, placing third. In the second class, sophomore Charlie May (Stockton, N.J.) had his Limit debut with a beautiful ride, placing third in the class. In the third class, sophomore Hallie Phillips (Santa Rosa, Calif.) and first-year Montserrat Hartwig (Santa Rosa, Calif.) came into the show ring. They both had a fantastic ride, resulting in first and fifth class. In the fourth class, McElveen had an amazing ride, winning the class. In the fifth Limit Flat class, Mutz put down a gorgeous ride, earning the blue ribbon.
The show moved on to three Novice classes where Mount Holyoke had two Novice debuts. In the first class, first-year Chelsey Ding (Dalian, China) placed fifth with a lovely ride. Then sophomore Nora Tripp (Westford, Mass.) entered the ring with a great ride, taking third place. In the third Novice class, first-year Sabella Riccio (Jersey City, N.J.) had her Novice debut as well and went in with a wonderful ride, placing second.
Next came the first Introductory Flat class, where Zhou and Fujioka came in with phenomenal rides, placing first and second, respectively. In the second Introductory Flat class, Kazel and junior Zhiying Li (Guangdong, China) had amazing rides, taking home first and second place. Wrapping up the Flat classes we had two Pre-Novice classes. In the first, sophomore Lila Hancock (Morrisville, Vt.) and senior Lingdang Zhang (Chengdu, China) presented their Pre-Novice debuts, with Hancock placing first and Zhang placing third. In the last Flat class, first-year Savannah Ma (Garden City, N.Y.) had a beautiful ride, placing third.
Jumping
After a schooling break, the show moved on to the Jumping section of the day, beginning with three Limit Fences classes. In the first class, Mutz and senior Elliot Candela (Maynard, Mass.) and Mutz placed first and second, respectively. In the second Flat Fences class, Bitler placed second and May took third.
Next came three Intermediate Fences classes. In the first class, junior Cate Bates (Montclair, N.J.) presented a wonderful ride, taking second place. Then McElveen was back in the ring with a lovely ride, placing first in the class. In the third Intermediate Fences class, Pearson-Siegel returned to the show ring with a great ride, placing third in a strong class.
Wrapping up the classes with two Open Fences classes, Simon came back to the show ring and took home the blue ribbon. In the second Open class, Mirarchi returned to the show ring with a gorgeous ride, placing third.
The Lyons will next compete at the IHSA Zone I Region 3 Championship on top of the regional standings with 367 points, followed by UMass-Amherst with 307 and Springfield with 229. Regionals will be held March 30 at Maplewood Farm in Berlin, Mass. Ten individual qualifiers will compete in 14 rides at regionals.
On April 6, Mount Holyoke will host the IHSA Zone I Championship and will be represented by eight riders.
Final Team Results
1. Mount Holyoke (42)
2. UMass-Amherst (32)
3. Springfield (25)
4. Worcester State (24)
5. Bentley (20)
6. WPI (19)
7. Amherst (12)
Smith (12)
9. Bennington (3)
-- Reporting by Dekyi Deji
