AMHERST, Mass. -- The Mount Holyoke College equestrian team took home the High Point Team title for the second time of the weekend Sunday at the UMass/Springfield Show, which took place at nearby Muddy Brook Farm.
The Lyons gained a slew of honors at the end of the day. Senior Mads Hurley (Portland, Maine) was the only rider all day to earn two blue ribbons, and was named Overall High Point Rider. Additionally, first-year Emi Graf (Belmont, Mass.) was Limit Reserve High Point Rider, first-year Bessie Huggins (Berkeley Heights, N.J.) was Novice Reserve High Point Rider, and senior Artemis Chen (Suzhou, China) was Intro Reserve High Point Rider.
Kicking off the action was senior captain Camille Cheng (Goleta, Calif.), in Open Fences. She took home a third-place ribbon for her round. Senior Cate Bates (Montclair, N.J.) was up next in Intermediate Fences, taking second place and qualifying for Regionals.
First-year Alyssa Martinsen (Arlington Heights, Ill.) started the team off strong with first place in the first class of Limit fences. In section B, Graf took first and sophomore Eliza Mutz (Stanford, Calif.) third. In the next split, senior Mara Downie (Holyoke, Mass.) was third, in her first time in Limit Fences, and junior Charlie May (Stockton, N.J.) was fifth. In the final split, Hurley and senior True Usiatynski (Fayetteville, N.Y.) rode to a first- and third-place finish, respectively.
On to Novice Flat. Section A saw our sophomore Grace Neumuth (Marlborough, Conn.) finish third, followed by two first-years making their IHSA debuts, Emma Jablonka (Westfield, N.J.) in first and Nicole Richards (Middletown, R.I.) in third. Sophomore Lainey Nibbio (Glen Ellyn, Ill.) was up next in Section C, and earned a fifth-place ribbon. In the final section of Novice, Huggins made her IHSA debut with a first-place finish, and senior Dekyi Deji (Beijing, China) finished third, qualifying for Regionals.
Our intro riders were up next. Chen was first, and senior Lakshyaa Sreekumar (Mississauga, Ontario) fourth in their split. In Section B, senior Zhuohan Shen (Shanghai, China) earned herself a red second-place ribbon. Continuing on to Pre-Novice, junior Nina Pereira (Easthampton, Mass.) made her IHSA debut and finished second, followed by senior Faith Marley (Belchertown, Mass.) with another second-place finish.
Onto Limit flat, and Martinsen and Mutz kept the ribbons coming with a sixth and a second, respectively. In the next two splits, sophomore Carly Bitler (Seymour, Ill.) earned third place, and Hurley added another blue ribbon to the collection. In the final section of Limit flat, Graf was second and Downie fourth.
In Open flat, Bates finished first and Cheng sixth, and junior Hallie Phillips (Santa Rosa, Calif.) took the Lyons home with a first-place finish in Intermediate Flat.
Team Results
1. Mount Holyoke (40)
2. UMass-Amherst (31)
Bentley (31)
4. Smith (20)
Springfield (20)
6. Amherst (19)
7. WPI
Worcester State
9. Trinity
10. Williams
Mount Holyoke returns to Muddy Brook Farm on Oct. 20 for the UMass/Smith Show.
-- Reporting by Cate Bates
