Above: The Mount Holyoke College hunt seat riding team scored a perfect 49 points in their final home regular season show, finishing first among seven teams on March 25, 2023. At right: ribbon winners (left to right) Kate Smith, Cate Bates, Sunita Pearson-Siegel, Toni Dris, and Blair Yuk.
SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. -- The Mount Holyoke College equestrian team found the ideal way to round out the regular season Saturday, scoring a perfect 49 points to finish first among seven teams at the fourth and final Mount Holyoke Show of the year. The show was originally scheduled to be at Worcester State.
Led by a whopping five high point rider award winners, Mount Holyoke scored 49 points, followed in team scoring by UMass-Amherst (33), WPI (21), Worcester State (19), Amherst (17), Springfield (14), and Smith (3).
Junior Sunita Pearson-Siegel (Brooklyn, N.Y.) was named the High Point Rider of the day, sophomore Cate Bates (Montclair, N.J.) was named Reserve High Point Rider, after sophomore Helena Weiss (Clifton, N.J.) was also called back to the ring for additional testing for the Overall High Point Rider title along with Pearson-Siegel and Bates.
Pearson-Siegel was also named Limit High Point Rider and Bates was named Limit Reserve High Point Rider after being called back for a quiz bowl. Additionally, sophomore Toni Dris (Fonda, N.Y.) was named Novice High Point Rider, first-year Kate Smith (Wells, Vt.) was named Reserve High Point Novice Rider, and junior Blair Yuk (Northvale, N.J.) was named Reserve High Point Introductory Rider.
Four Mount Holyoke riders qualified for the IHSA Zone 1 Region III Championships taking place Sunday (March 26) at Bonnie Lea Farm in Williamstown, Mass.: Blair Yuk in Introductory, junior Chloe McElveen (Ridgeland, S.C.) in Novice, senior Georgia Fish (Baltimore, Md.) in Intermediate Flat, and first-year Olivia Simon (Sacramento, Calif.) in Open Fences.
Mount Holyoke finished the regular season atop Region III with 316 points, followed by UMass-Amherst with 384 and Amherst with 190. Eight Lyons will represent the program at the Zone 1 Championships taking place at the MHC Equestrian Center over two days, April 7-8.
The day began with a senior awards ceremony to honor all of the graduating seniors in the region and flowers were handed to the seniors from their coaches.
First up in the show were two sections of Open Fences. In the first section, Simon had a beautiful ride to place fourth in their class. The second section saw Weiss and Fish both with stunning trips over fences to finish first and fourth respectively. Next up was Intermediate Fences, which saw two gorgeous trips from junior Emmie Mirarchi (Harvard, Mass.) and sophomore Camille Cheng (Goleta, Calif.), to finish first and fourth in the class.
The ring then moved on to two sections of Limit Fences. In the first section, Pearson-Siegel had a solid ride to finish first in her class. The next section saw Bates and junior Hayley Halloran (Lewes, Del.) with stunning rides for a one-two finish. Wrapping up the jumping for the day was Alumni Fences, which saw MHC alum Maya Brody '20 put in a beautiful ride to finish fourth in her class.
After a short schooling break, the ring moved on to the flat classes, beginning with the Introductory division. Juniors Lingdang Zhang (Chengdu, China) and Blair Yuk had strong rides to place first and third. Brody then returned for an Alumni flat class, putting in a strong ride to finish fourth.
The next class saw Weiss return for Open Flat, putting in a gorgeous ride for another blue ribbon. The ring then moved on to three sections of Limit Flat, with Bates returning for another strong ride to finish first in her class. Pearson-Siegel then returned in the next section with a solid ride to secure another blue ribbon for MHC. Finally, senior manager Acadia Ferrero-Lampron (Denver, Colo.) put in a beautiful ride to place third in her class.
Seniors Kristen Adolf (Moore, S.C.) and Fish were next in the ring for the only section of Intermediate Flat, with Adolf in her Intermediate debut placing second and Fish placing fourth. Dris entered the ring next for MHC in the Pre-Novice division, with a gorgeous ride to win her class.
The show wrapped up with two sections of the Novice division. In the first section, first-year Emma Cantalupo (Candia, N.H.) had a stunning ride to finish first in her class. Finally, Smith and McElveen finished the day strong with amazing rides to a one-two finish.
-- Reporting by Acadia Ferrero-Lampron '23
