April
23,
2004
MHC
Dressage Team Will Head to Nationals
|
Photo by Fred LeBlanc
Nicole Mazzeo '05
warms up Blitz for first-level competition.
|
The Mount Holyoke
College dressage team clinched the Northeastern Regional Championship
of the Intercollegiate Dressage Association (IDA) Saturday,
April 10, at the final show of the season, which was held at
Johnson & Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island.
The school's latest triumph marked its ninth regional
championship in the past ten years. The team amassed a perfect
score of 28 points for the season. (Each school's top
four scores are counted out of the eight-show season. Seven
points are awarded for each championship; Mount Holyoke won
five of the eight championships.) Of the six other schools
participating, UNH placed second and Johnson & Wales placed
third.
Next stop for the Mount Holyoke team is the IDA nationals, where it hopes to
add a third victory to its two-year run as national champions. The team consists
of four riders who compete at different levels: introductory, lower and upper
training, and first level. The competition will be held April 23--25 at
Cazenovia College in Cazenovia, New York, which, like Mount Holyoke, has a nationally
renowned equestrian program. In addition to earning a berth for the team competition,
Mount Holyoke riders secured five of the 12 slots allotted for individual qualifiers
from the Northeast region. Mount Holyoke's riders won three out of four
individual rider championships and placed second in the other division.
Team captain Lindsay Whipple '06 from Barre, Vermont, said, "I could
not be prouder of the way the team worked together and supported each other.
It is an amazing feeling to be part of such a successful team."
The team has made tremendous progress under the coaching of Rebecca Schurink
of Amherst, a highly regarded dressage trainer and competitor, who has worked
with the Mount Holyoke riders since 1998. "When I started here, everyone
who tried out for the team got a place. Now we have stiff competition for a limited
number of spaces. If I had more horses and more places at shows I'd love
to take more riders." Serious young dressage riders come to Mount Holyoke
specifically for the opportunity to work with the team. Whipple, well known as
a junior rider throughout New England, said, "The dressage team drew me
to the school in the first place, and then it was the deciding factor."
Schurink is thrilled with the team's success. "Dressage competition
is such a psychological sport. Having won the regionals gives the riders tremendous
confidence as they go into a higher level of competition. I am hopeful they'll
retain this feeling at nationals."
The riders competing at nationals are: Lindsay Whipple '06 (Barre, VT);
Kate D'Ambly '05 (Raynhnam, MA); Cathrine Tauscher '06 (Clinton,
WA); Christiane Benzing '04 (East Wakefield, NH); Nina Akerley '04
(Durham, CT); and Nadine Krause '07 (Newtown, CT).
he unhe
counter is
1,833
|
