If there’s any sport that Skidmore blows out of the park, it’s our riding team. These girls put heart and soul into their sport and never cease to strut their talent! This year, the Skidmore riding team travelled to Raleigh, North Carolina to compete in the 2012 IHSA National Championships, where some riders were selected to represent Skidmore and compete on the national team while others had qualified to compete on an individual basis.
The national team included senior Chelsea Jones (team open fences), senior Kelly Campbell (team open flat and Cacchione rider for Zone 2), junior Julia Mozzarella (team intermediate fences and flat), junior Madeline Frank (team novice fences), junior Emory Wonham (team novice flat), senior Isabella McKeon (team walk/trot/canter), and junior Marisa McCullough (team walk/trot).
Competing individually were Kelly Campbell (open flat), sophomore Erika Wohl (walk/trot), and sophomore Kayla Kleinman (walk/trot). Skidmore also brought some four-legged friends to compete as well including school horses Moondance, Lance, and Ramiro to compete on the flat.
May 3 was the first day of competition and Madeline started the day with a bang scoring an 82 in the team novice over fences class aboard Dorina from Virginia Intermount earning Skidmore’s first two points. Next up, Julia had a beautiful ride in the individual novice flat and received an honorable mention. Emory was the next team rider to compete in the novice flat earning a seventh place finish. Senior Kelly Campbell competed in three events drawing Sampson for her first ride in the individual open flat earning a fifth place ribbon. Julia was next up competing in a rigorous judge’s test to receive fifth in the team intermediate flat. After the first day, Skidmore was in fifth place with three out of eight classes completed.
Day two also began on an incredible note with Julia scoring an 89 in the team intermediate over fences on Sampson. Winning the division she added seven points to Skidmore’s total score. Next up was Kelly competing in the Cacchione on Ghandi where she had a lovely round and scored 82.5 placing her in fifth after twenty-six of the thirty-six competitors had competed. In the flat phase of the Cacchione Kelly rode Sampson again scoring an 86 and qualifying her for the ride off the following day. Kayla and Erika had wonderful rides in the individual walk/trot with Kayla winning the division. In team walk/trot Marisa had a great round earning a second place finish and five points for the team. Isabella had a lovely ride in the team walk/trot/canter finishing second and earning an additional five points for Skidmore. At the conclusion of day two, Skidmore had 21 points a mere seven points behind St. Lawrence.
Day three started off with Chelsea competing in team open fences. She had a great ride earning a 77 and a tenth place ribbon. Next Kelly rode King from Centenary College in the Cacchione work off and secured reserve champion. Kelly then competed in the team open flat riding Teddy and earning a fourth place ribbon adding an additional three points to the overall score. After a long three days of competition Skidmore rode to a spectacular second place finish with a total of 24 points. St. Lawrence, a fellow Zone 2 school, won with 31 points.
Congratulations to all the riders who competed, head coach Cindy Ford, assistant coach Belinda Colgan, the entire Skidmore equestrian team, and everyone in the Skidmore riding program who made this win possible. What a fantastic way to end the 2012 season!
Photos courtesy of Skidmore Athletics