Greenfield, Mass. - February 24, 2020 - The Mount Holyoke College varsity hunt seat team competed for the first time in nearly a month this past Saturday, as the Lyons earned the High Point College title at the Smith College Show, hosted at the Stoneleigh Burnham School.
Mount Holyoke College finished the day with 42 points to secure victory, as the Lyons were followed by Smith (33), Worcester State (32), UMass Amherst (29) and Amherst (24) to round out the top five.
Junior Sara Hearn (Tallahassee, Fla.) and senior Indra Rapinchuk-Souccar (Cummington, Mass.) started the day off strong in Open Fences, where they finished second and fourth, respectively. Next was two sections of Intermediate Fences, where Kristina Lester (West Suffield, Conn.) took fourth, followed by first-year Georgia Fish (Baltimore, Md.), who was fifth. In the next section, Libby Sams (Atlanta, Ga.) and Harriet Thomson (Paddington, Australia) claimed the top two spots, with Sams taking first, followed by a runner-up finish from Thomson.
Open riders then returned to the ring for the Flat section. Franny Eremeeva (Northampton, Mass.) was able to take first, followed by Hearn, who was second in a competitive class. Three sections of Intermediate Flat followed. Emy McLaughlin (Portland, Maine) rode to a third-place finish, before Thomson returned to the ring and produced a second-place result.
The ring then moved to Limit Fences with three sections, the first of which saw first-year Sydney Cropper (Provincetown, Mass.) deliver a gorgeous trip over the fences for a fifth-place finish. In the second section, Kristina Honour (Lake Forest, Ill.) took third, while Sarah Etzel (Northampton, Mass.) wrapped up the class strong, earning first place honors.
After a short break for Lyons, Limit Flat riders entered the ring. In the first section, first year Caroline Sullivan (Groton, Mass.) had a lovely ride, finishing in fourth place. Then, first-year Katarina Nys (Ville-d'Avray, France) made her IHSA debut in the next section with a fantastic ride and earned a third-place ribbon. In the third section of the class, Honour returned to the ring to demonstrate strong riding en route to a first-place finish. The final section saw sophomore Sierra Dunn (Northampton, Mass.) with another blue ribbon following a great ride.
Senior Honami Tanaka (Fukuoka City, Japan) was next in the ring for the first of two Novice sections, where she demonstrated a lovely ride, finishing third. In the second section, sophomore Hannah Brown (Portland, Ore.) delivered a first-place finish with a strong ride.
Wrapping up the day were two sections of Introductory. In the first section, first-year Kerina Li (Guangzhou, China) also made her IHSA debut in impressive fashion, taking first overall. The ring then saw another blue-ribbon performance from senior Angela Cheng (Shanghai, China), who rode wonderfully in the last class of the day.
At day's end, Honour was called back for additional testing before being announced Reserve Overall High Point Rider of the Day. Addtionally, Dunn qualified for regionals in Limit Flat, while Brown also qualified in Novice.
The Lyons will return to action on Saturday, February 29 with the UMass Show, hosted at Hadley Farm.
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