Above: The 2025 IHSA Zone 1 Champion Mount Holyoke College Lyons. At right: Reserve champions Megan Bliamptis (left) and Cate Bates.
GALES FERRY, Conn. -- The Mount Holyoke College hunt seat riding team captured the IHSA Zone I Championship and advanced as a team to IHSA Nationals by the slimmest of margins on Sunday, topping both Northeastern University and the University of Rhode Island by one point on Sunday at Mystic Valley Hunt Club.
The Lyons will compete for a national title May 2-4 at IHSA Nationals at Tryon International Equestrian Center in Mill Spring, N.C., both as a team and with seniors Cate Bates (Montclair, N.J.) and Megan Bliamptis (Lexington, Mass.) competing as individuals, following their respective Reserve Champion performances on Sunday. Bates won the reserve championship in Individual Intermediate Flat, while Bliamptis was reserve champion in the Introductory Class. The top two riders in each discipline advance to Nationals.
In the all-important team competition, Region 3 champion Mount Holyoke scored 40 points, while both Northeastern and URI scored 39 apiece. Taking fourth place was the University of Connecticut with 34. With the top two teams at each zone championship advancing to nationals, Northeastern won the second-place tiebreaker to make tbe trip to nationals along with Mount Holyoke, due to a higher blue-ribbon count (3) than URI's.
Mount Holyoke's fortunes contrasted with the 2024 Zone I Championship, when the Lyons missed the team trip to nationals by one point to the University of Vermont.
The day began with Individual Open Over Fences, and senior captain Camille Cheng (Goleta, Calif.), who laid down a lovely ride to finish seventh.
Bates kicked off the team competition in Team Open Over Fences, riding to a third place finish. Bates then returned to the ring for Individual Intermediate Fences, taking fifth.
Sophomore Carly Bitler (Seymour, Ill.) was next to go, riding in Team Intermediate Fences. Bitler earned four points for the team with a third place finish.
In Team Limit Fences, first-year Emi Graf (Belmont, Mass.) laid down a lovely round and was called back for additional testing. Graf won the class and added seven points to the Lyons' team total.
After a schooling break, the action picked right back up again with the flat portion of the day.
Bates rode in back-to-back flat classes, starting with Individual Intermediate Flat, where she rode to Reserve Champion and qualified for Nationals.
Then Bates returned for Team Open Flat, placing second and earning five points for the team.
Sophomore Eliza Mutz (Stanford, Calif.) rode next, in Team Intermediate Flat. Mutz earned a fourth-place finish for her ride and three points for the team.
Mount Holyoke had two entries in Individual Introductory Flat: senior Artemis Chen (Suzhou, China) and Bliamptis. They finished in the top three together, with Chen taking third and Bliamptis taking second place as the Reserve Champion and qualifying for Nationals.
Team Introductory was next, with senior Zhuohan Shen (Shanghai, China) earning another blue ribbon for Mount Holyoke and earning seven points for the team.
In Individual Novice Flat, sophomore Grace Neumuth (Marlborough, Conn.) had a lovely ride, finishing fifth.
Down to the wire came the final two team classes:
Senior Kate Smith (Wells, Vt.) had a beautiful ride in Team Limit Flat and earned a first-place ribbon and another seven points for the team.
And finally, first-year Bessie Huggins (Berkeley Heights, N.J.) earned fourth place in Team Novice Flat and another three points to finish off the day.
-- Reporting by Cate Bates
