Above: The 2023 IHSA Zone 1 Champion Mount Holyoke College Lyons. At right: Ribbon winners flanked by assistant coach Morgan Lynch (far left) and head coach CJ Law (far right).
SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. -- The Mount Holyoke College equestrian team scored 13 more points on the second day of the 2023 IHSA Zone 1 Championships on Saturday at the MHC Equestrian Center, clinching their second straight Zone 1 title and a trip to IHSA Nationals next month in Kentucky.
The Region III champion Lyons finished the two-day show with 41 points, outscoring Reserve Champion and Region V champion Sacred Heart (37), which will also advance to Nationals along with the top two teams from seven other zones. Johnson & Wales from Region I placed third (35), followed by the University of Vermont (28) from Region II and Boston University (27) from Region IV.
Mount Holyoke had four riders compete in three additional collegiate classes and two individual classes on Saturday.
The day began with Individual Open Fences, in which first-year Olivia Simon (Sacramento, Calif.) had a beautiful round to finish eighth in their class. The ring then moved on to Collegiate Open Fences, where sophomore Helena Weiss (Clifton, N.J.) delivered a stunning trip. In a competitive class, Weiss placed fifth and wrapped up the jumping portion of the day for the team.
The flat portion of the day opened with two sections of Individual Introductory. In the second section, Mount Holyoke junior Kerina Li (Guangzhou, China) had a gorgeous ride and was called back for additional testing later in the day, after which she was announced the winner, securing a spot at Nationals. In the Introductory Team class, junior Lingdang Zhang (Chengdu, China) also delivered a stunning ride for a first-place finish for MHC.
The Collegiate class for Open Flat finished up the day for Mount Holyoke, and Weiss returned to the ring with another beautiful ride, finishing third and securing a victory for the Lyons.
Mount Holyoke will resume action at Nationals on May 4-7, 2023, at Lexington, Ky., where the Lyons will send team riders in eight classes, along with the following individual qualifiers: Kerina Li (Introductory), and junior Emmie Mirarchi (Harvard, Mass.; Limit Flat and Fences).
-- Reporting by Acadia Ferrero-Lampron '23
