The race is heating up on the road to Lexington, and no, we’re not talking the Kentucky Derby. The 2011 Intercollegiate Horse Show Association National Championships are returning May 5-8 to the Kentucky Horse Park, and it looks like the 37th of the nation’s leading collegiate battle for year-end titles promises to be a fight to the finish.
Shakespeare said, “Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown,” and the stakes are especially high for defending team champions. In the hunter seat division, defense of the Collegiate Cup goes to coach Cindy “Built Ford Tough” Ford and her Skidmore College Thoroughbreds (Saratoga Springs, N.Y.). No stranger to IHSA team titles, Skidmore earned five national championships in nine years (1990, 1991, 1995, 1996 and 1999) but a 21st century victory had eluded them until 2010, when Skidmore won the Collegiate Cup at Lexington.
Under head coach Cindy Morehead, and assistant coach, National Reining Horse Association and American Quarter Horse Association Congress Hall of Fame inductee, Clark Bradley, The University of Findlay (Ohio) Oilers went to Lexington in 2010 to successfully defend their 2009 AQHA High Point Team trophy. In 2001, Findlay became the first school in IHSA history to win national championships in both western and hunter seat and won additional western team championships in 2005 and 2007. They’ll look to Lexington 2011 for the ultimate cowboy hat trick: a three-peat sweep of the high point team title.
Individually, the sidelines will be watching Cacchione Cup hunter seat champion, Lindsay Sceats (coached by C.J. Law at Mount Holyoke College), and Utah State University’s NRHA and AQHA champion, Jason Romney (coached by Rebecca Lewis).
Zone 1 Region 3 is home to former national champions, Mount Holyoke College (Mass.), and team standings continue to cement MHC’s intentions to make it to Lexington. The Mount Holyoke College Lyons lead in team standings ahead of UMass-Amherst and Smith College (Mass.).
One of the friendliest rivalries of the season may belong to Mount Holyoke teammates JoJo Gutfarb, defending Cacchione Cup champion, Lindsay Sceats, and Elizabeth Tripp. The trio has remained within a handful of points of each other in high point rider standings all season.
At its second Zone 1 Region 4 show of the season, March 13, at Riverwind Farm, Mt. Ida College (Mass.) rode away as High Point Team (HPT). Stonehill College (Mass.) finished reserve HPT but maintained its lead in overall High Point Team standings. Mount Ida also had the High Point Rider, Lillian Robinson. Reserve HPR went to Lily Zarella (Boston U) who held on to her overall lead in Cacchione Cup Rider standings.
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Zone 2 news is short but certainly sweet from the Cornell University (N.Y.) Big Red, as hunter seat coach Chris Mitchell said, “Cornell won the Zone 2 Region 1 title for the first time in school history.”
Centenary College (N.J.) (2009 Collegiate Cup National Champions) earned Zone 3, Region 3 High Point Team titles for the first time for both its western and hunter seat teams. Its hunter seat team also collected 22 regional titles, the highest number of regional wins for an IHSA team. Hunter seat rider Marissa Cohen (’11) leads the Region 3 Cacchione Cup standings with three teammates behind her: sophomores Cori Reich and Nicole Mandracchia and senior Randi Cashman. Cashman is also High Point AQHA Rider for Zone 3, Region 3.
Centenary’s hunter seat team is preparing for IHSA Regionals, April 3, at Briarwood Farms in Readington, NJ. They have 26 riders qualified and a record 34 rides total.
“We are so thrilled and impressed not only with riding aspect, but also with how hard the students are working,” said coach Michael Dowling. The Centenary College Equine Center will run Zone 3 Finals on Saturday, April 9, with U.S. Hunter Jumper Association President, William Moroney, judging.
“The team as a whole works extremely well together to encourage not only individual success, but team success,” said coach Heather Clark. “It’s such a pleasure to work with students that care about their individual riding as well as their teammates’ accomplishments. That’s good sportsmanship.”
Going into March, Sewanee-University of the South (Tenn.) was the leading hunter seat team in Zone 5, Region 1, ahead of Murray State and Middle Tennessee State University. Sewanee also had the high point rider/Cacchione Cup qualifier in senior co-captain, Lindsay Maxwell. This is the third time out in four years that Maxwell has won Regional High Point Rider.
Hosting its first Regional (Zone 5, Region 3) Championships proved as easy as walk-trot for the University of Central Florida, whose own Cacchione Cup qualifier, Katie Taylor, also handily won both her Open Fences and Open Flat class. Taylor’s UCF teammates, Sonja Murillo and Victoria Schandel, have also qualified for Zones and the next leg to Lexington.
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“By far,” said Taylor, “this has been UCF’s best season ever. Ten out of 15 UCF riders qualified for Regionals. I’m thrilled to be headed to Nationals.”
Miami University (Ohio) won its Zone 6 Region 2 hunter seat team standings with Otterbein University (Ohio) in reserve. Sara Dziegielewski took Cacchione Cup honors ahead of Lauren Cechini. The Miami U team and qualifying riders will travel to Otterbein for the next qualifying leg, IHSA Zones Championships, April 9.
The Oregon State University Beavers are celebrating a fantastic season, having earned both hunter seat and western team high point standings, and sending 13 individual riders to Zones and Semi-Finals, including Zone 8 Region 4 AQHA rider Elizabeth Whitman, and Cacchione Cup rider, Abbie Zanone.
Sportswriter Grantland Rice said, “It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game,” and for IHSA coaches and riders, each step on the road to Lexington is a memorable one.
“It’s an incredible opportunity for students who otherwise cannot afford to be around horses, plus learning life lessons, and making incredible friendships,” said rider Victoria Guzman.
And — with hard work and a little luck – memories to last a lifetime while riding for one’s school at the Kentucky Horse Park.
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