It was an auspicious start for Emily Bruschi. Seen here with her mother, Bruschi placed second in individual open fences at Zone 2 Zones to start the day, then won team open fences immediately thereafter.

SKIDMORE DOMINATES IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE

Greenfield, NY - The forecast had been for rain with clearing in the afternoon. However the rain cleared out before the show even started, and the weather conditions inproved so much that many spent the afternoon out of doors enjoying the unusual lower '60's temps for this time of year near Saratoga Springs.

Meanwhile Skidmore College was smokin' hot indoors. The Thoroughbreds won five of eight team classes, including four of the five flat divisions, while five riders placed inside the top two in the individual classes. Of those individual qualifiers, Vicky Wright qualified twice. The senior from Manchester, Vermont won individual intermediate flat and individual novice fences, becoming the only Skidmore rider with an individual blue ribbon on this day.

Skidmore was never worse than tied for first in the team competition. Emily Bruschi, a sophomore from Plainview, New York won open over fences to start the team classes. Following a third from Alexandra Stevenson in intermediate fences (which meant a temporary tie with Centenary College for first) and a third from Laura Roberts in novice fences (which meant a temporary tie for first with St. Lawrence), Jessica Schroff won team open flat to put Skidmore ahead for good. The senior from Buffalo, New York started a win streak, as Hawthorne Hart (also a senior, and from Waterford, Virginia) won team intermediate flat and Grier Filley (a sophomore from Millbrook, New York, and with as good a name as you will ever see on a team nicknamed the Thoroughbreds) won team novice flat to open up a 36-29 lead on St. Lawrence for the top spot. Hanae Kimura was second in team walk-trot-canter while Rebecca Rawling won the final class of the day, a first in team walk-trot to close the Skidmore scoring with 48 points and an eleven point win over both Centenary and St. Lawrence.

A couple of Oregonians in a happy mood! Talor Lee-Stiles (right, from Portland) and Rachel Marcotte (from Eugene) posed for the camera before their Centenary Cylones clinched a trip to Nationals. Marcotte won the individual intermediate over fences division, becoming one of three Centenary riders to qualify individually. The Cyclones won the tiebreaker with St. Lawrence for second, though both teams get to go to Nationals as Zone 2 has over 1,000 hunter seat riders.

If this were any other Zones show in the country, the issue of second place in the team competition would be highly contested. However IHSA rules currently stipulate that if a Zone has over 1,000 registered hunter seat riders then the top three teams in that Zone may advance through the Zones show to IHSA Nationals. Thanks to a first for Juliana Goldlust of New York University in team novice fences the overall team race was close through three team classes (Skidmore and St. Lawrence had 15, Centenary 14 and NYU 13 at the time). From that point forward NYU sank quickly, earning fourth out of four over the next four divisions. Centenary College had some highs and lows in the team competition, with the highs being firsts for Marissa Cohen in intermediate fences and Ashlynne Jones in walk-trot-canter. St. Lawrence was very consistant, earning six red ribbons and two yellows to score 37 points. With the first IHSA tiebreaker being the number of blue ribbons won over eight team classes Centenary officially earned second place, though both the Cyclones and the Saints could breathe easily from the sixth team class on that they were both headed to Nationals with full teams. Centenary also shook off the Van Lennep Riding Center jinx, in that their 2002 and 2005 teams were eliminated as the third place team at a time when Zone 2 was made up of only three regions and under 1,000 riders.

Centenary and St. Lawrence had several individual qualifiers as well. Rachel Marcotte (first in intermediate fences), Molly Brown (second in novice flat) and Megan Tritsch (second in walk-trot) of the Cyclones and Katharine Hankin (first in open flat) and Kristen Putnam (first in walk-trot-canter) of the Saints extended their seasons as judge Jay Sargent was pleased enough with their efforts to put each over and above third place.

Though they had advanced riders through Regionals before, Hartwick College had never been able to seal the deal with a top two placing at Zones. Aileen McCarthy (right, with Head Coach Elisabeth Smith-Price) finished second in individual intermediate over fences to become the first Hartwick rider ever to qualify for Nationals. Before the day was over, another Hawk, Ariana Bray (not pictured) would win individual walk-trot to give Hartwick two riders at 2008 Nationals.

Between Skidmore, Centenary and St. Lawrence, 11 of the 16 rides at 2008 IHSA Nationals awarded to Zone 2 undergraduates were spoken for. Only five other riders were able to place second or higher from the other 26 schools with at least one undergraduate entered. One of these schools is Hartwick College, which was coming off their best season in program history. The Hawks were third overall in Zone 2, Region 3 with 246 points, 38 behind Cornell and 99 behind a Skidmore team that won or tied for first at seven of their eight shows. Hartwick College had never been able to advance a rider to IHSA Nationals before, but on this day that streak came to an end. Aileen McCarthy, a sophomore from Rumson, New Jersey placed second to Marcotte in individual intermediate fences to secure a trip to Burbank. Considering the years of trying to get past Zones Hawks Head Coach Elisabeth "Betsey" Smith-Price was extremely shocked when a second Hawk qualified. Ariana Bray, a senior from Torington, Connecticut won the individual walk-trot outright, becoming the second Hartwick rider in less than eight hours to qualify.

Perhaps familiar with the Van Lennep Riding Center and some of the horses, Region 3 claimed a ninth individual blue ribbon via Cornell sophomore Zoe Samuel. From Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Samuel won individual novice flat. Region 2 had a third qualifier, as Charlotte Kramer of Syracuse survived a test versus two others including Wright in intermediate flat. A sophomore from Chappaqua, New York, Kramer is the first Syracuse rider since Katie Hauss in 2005 to advance to Nationals.

It was not the best day for Region 4 riders, though the show started out with promise. Hanna Gelfand, a New York University junior from Los Angeles, California won the individual open over fences to briefly give Region 4 100% of the blue ribbons awarded. Sadly, not one other Region 4 rider survived the competition. Molly Collins of Hofstra University was the only other Region 4 undergraduate rider higher than fifth in an individual undergraduate class, placing fourth. New York University walk-trot rider Arina Chesnokova was second at the end the day to provide the Bobcats with a first, a second and six fourths in the team competition.

Hadley Deming (on left, with IHSA Founder and Executive Director Bob Cacchione) was one of five St. Lawrence riders to place second in a team class at Zones. Deming accomplished this twice, earning red ribbons in both team novice flat and fences.

There was one class where a Region 4 rider earned a second, but this particular class does not have any bearing on who advances to IHSA Nationals. Zone 2 is one of roughly five which still hold a Cacchione Cup Class at Zones to award a ribbon for the best open rider in the Zone for that season. Each of the four open riders with the most combined flat and fences points during the regular season in their respective region was entered. Skidmore senior Megan Martin, who was second to Hankin in individual open flat, received the Yankee Doodle Perpetual Trophy donated by Region 1 for winning the Cacchione class, which had both a jumping phase and a flat phase. The runner-up was Fairfield University sophomore Elysse Ruschmeyer, who represented Region 4. Dorothy Douglas of St. Lawrence was third while James Fairclough II of Drew University was fourth. All four riders will still get to compete at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center in roughly four weeks, as Martin, Ruschmeyer, Douglas and Fairclough were automatically qualified for Nationals in the Cacchione division. The difference then will be 31 riders competing in the division instead of four.

The alumni divisions were made up of ten riders on the flat and eight over fences. Each of the first two individual open fences had featured testing, and in each case the three riders tested were actually being judged for second place. When alumni fences took place, again three riders were tested, with Ithaca College alum Audra Ravo, Salve Regina graduate (and Yale Head Coach) Amanda Gerdts and Virginia Tech alumni (and Pace Head Coach) Lisa Tomaselli all asked to go over a select few fences a second time. Judge Sargent was not testing for runner-up this time, as Tomaselli was first, Ravo second and Gerdts third. Though all three of these riders were also qualified in alumni flat, only Tomaselli made the top three, at third. The division was not tested, and when the placings were annouced from eight back to first former Pace rider Angela Netoskie (who was Angela Stone as an undergraduate) was second while defending alumni flat National Champion Kristine Kennedy of Drew was first. Kennedy will now try to become the eighth rider in IHSA history to win two alumni classes at IHSA Nationals. Ironically Drew Assistant Coach Sandra Sayre holds the record, with five wins across the two alumni divisions at various IHSA Nationals held between 1998 and 2006.

Drew Head Coach and IHSA Alumni Director Karen Sykes (left) has coached more alumni to National Championships than any coach in IHSA history. 2006 Drew graduate Kristine Kennedy (center, with Cacchione on right) won the alumni flat at 2007 Nationals, and by virtue of a first in the division at Zones she will earn the right to defend her alumni flat title at 2008 Nationals.

They deserve a mention: The Skidmore riders not mentioned thus far who qualified individually are Andrea Hippeau (second to teammate Wright in novice fences) and Billie Taft (second to Putnam in walk-trot-canter). Also Bruschi was second to Gelfand in the first individual class, which came less than 45 minutes before her first in team open fences.

Zone 2 is due!: A look back at the results of IHSA Nationals over the past several seasons does not reveal the greatest outcomes for the teams which represented Zone 2. Cazenovia College, which won Region 2 over St. Lawrence in 2007, scored 10 points to finish behind four schools from other Zones. In 2006 Skidmore scored 14 to tie Virginia Intermont, but alas four other schools again had more points. In 2005 St. Lawrence, Skidmore and the University of Findlay all scored 12 points, but yet again four others (including now-NCAA-only Texas A & M) were able to do better. Not since Centenary scored 22 points at 2004 IHSA Nationals in Murfreesboro, Tennessee (the site of 2009 IHSA Nationals) has a Zone 2 school stayed in the hunt for the National Championship going into the final class.

While Centenary finished third in 2004, the Cyclones may want to remind themselves that their last Reserve National Championship came in 1996, when they received the red ribbon at - you guessed it - the Los Angeles Equestrian Center. The Cyclones scored 22 over the course of only two days (Nationals became a three-day event two years later, and a four-day event in 2004) yet their neighbors to the north took home the big prize. The 1990's belonged to Skidmore, as the Thoroughbreds won the IHSA National Championship in 1990, 1991, 1995, 1996 and 1999. The '96 champs were led by 1997 graduate Courtney Phibbs, who won both team open classes.

Every year this writer hears many in Zone 2 argue that their Zone is the strongest in the nation. And though some in Zones 1 and 4 say the same thing those who defend Zone 2 may be correct. However the team results at recent IHSA Nationals suggest otherwise. Many feel that defending National Champion Virginia Intermont College will repeat, as most of their roster is returning from the 2007 competition. Others point to the Findlay program, which produced the Reserve National Champions in 2007 (tied with Mount Holyoke College) and 2004 (a point behind Virginia Intermont) while winning it all in lopsided fashion in 2001. Though this writer has not seen the 2007-08 Findlay Oilers in person he has seen Virginia Intermont, Brown, UMass at Amherst, Penn State, West Virginia University, Mary Washington, College of Charleston, the University of Kentucky and each of the Zone 2 schools with a full team going to Nationals. As long as they don't beat themselves, one of the three Zone 2 schools will finally make a bonafide run at the championship. One of them could even win it.

--Steve Maxwell

Show Incidentals: Sunny skies with temperatures reaching the low '60's. Entire show held indoors. Start Time: 8:42AM. Finish: 5:40PM - includes numerous schooling breaks, a lunch break/Coaches & Captains Meeting and three course walks totaling over two hours. Alumni Classes held in this region?: Yes. Judge: Jay Sargent, Middletown, Rhode Island. Stewards: Wells/Centenary College, Gerrity/Molloy College, Dreuding/St. Lawrence University and Mitchell/Cornell University.

Class-By-Class Results from Zone 2 Zones, held April 12th, 2008 in Greenfield, New York, with the top two riders in each individual class advancing to IHSA Nationals May 8th through 11th in Burbank, California:

Individual Open Equitation Over Fences: 1. Hanna Gelfand, New York University. 2. Emily Bruschi, Skidmore College. 3. Liz Stitzel, Sarah Lawrence College. 4. Dorothy Douglas, St. Lawrence University. 5. Dana Kendrick, Cornell University. 6. Jamie Graham, Hofstra University. 7. Elysse Ruschmeyer, Fairfield University. 8. Megan Martin, Skidmore College.

Team Open Equitation Over Fences: 1. Emily Bruschi, Skidmore College. 2. Dorothy Douglas, St. Lawrence University. 3. Jenn Elrod, Centenary College. 4. Hanna Gelfand, New York University.

Individual Intermediate Equitation Over Fences: 1. Rachel Marcotte, Centenary College. 2. Aileen McCarthy, Hartwick College. 3. Jennifer Wilkins, Skidmore College. 4. Kahri Olsen, Stevens Institute of Technology. 5. Amanda Urbanski, Stony Brook University. 6. Hawthorne Hart, Skidmore College. 7. Elena Kurz, State University of New York at Geneseo. 8. Kat Kennedy, Alfred University.

Team Intermediate Equitation Over Fences: 1. Marissa Cohen, Centenary College. 2. Lindsay Colbert, St. Lawrence University. 3. Alexandra Stevenson, Skidmore College. 4. Stephanie Phillips, New York University.

Individual Novice Equitation Over Fences: 1. Vicky Wright, Skidmore College. 2. Andrea Hippeau, Skidmore College. 3. Kim Kalosy, Centenary College. 4. Jennifer Stapelfeld, Drew University. 5. Shayna Silverman, New York University. 6. Caitlin Hartman, Alfred University. 7. Alexandra Schauble, Stony Brook University. 8. Amy Crysler, Cazenovia College.

Team Novice Equitation Over Fences: 1. Juliana Goldlust, New York University. 2. Hadley Deming, St. Lawrence University. 3. Laura Roberts, Skidmore College. 4. Talor Lee-Stiles, Centenary College.

Alumni Equitation Over Fences: 1. Lisa Tomaselli, Virginia Tech. 2. Audra Ravo, Ithaca College. 3. Amanda Gerdts, Salve Regina University. 4. Kristine Kennedy, Drew University. 5. Danielle Reynolds, C.W. Post College - Long Island University. 6. Angela Netoskie, Pace University. 7. Amanda Marsh, St. Joseph's College (NY). 8. Amanda Bon-Keen, Wesleyan University.

Individual Open Equitation On The Flat: 1. Katharine Hankin, St. Lawrence University. 2. Megan Martin, Skidmore College. 3. Jennifer Wilkins, Skidmore College. 4. Dorothy Douglas, St. Lawrence University. 5. Tori Fredrick, Drew University. 6. Liz Stitzel, Sarah Lawrence University. 7. Jennie Nevin, Yale University. 8. Kendle Handtmann, Skidmore College.

Team Open Equitation On The Flat: 1. Jessica Schroff, Skidmore College. 2. Suzanne Snyder, St. Lawrence University. 3. Jenn Elrod, Centenary College. 4. Emily Oatis, New York University.

Cacchione Cup Class: 1. Megan Martin, Skidmore College. 2. Elysse Ruschmeyer, Fairfield University. 3. Dorothy Douglas, St. Lawrence University. 4. James Fairclough II, Drew University (All four of these riders are automatically qualified for IHSA Nationals as Region Champion High Point Open Riders - Editor).

Individual Intermediate Equitation On The Flat: 1. Vicky Wright, Skidmore College. 2. Charlotte Kramer, Syracuse University. 3. Rachel Marcotte, Centenary College. 4. Molly Collins, Hofstra University. 5. Mariel Davis, Columbia University. 6. Andrea Hippeau, Skidmore College. 7. Nicole Benesch, Centenary College. 8. Carolina O'Connell, Pace University.

Team Intermediate Equitation On The Flat: 1. Hawthorne Hart, Skidmore College. 2. Rachel Samuels, Centenary College. 3. Holly Davis, St. Lawrence University. 4. Shayna Silverman, New York University.

Individual Novice Equitation On The Flat: 1. Zoe Samuel, Cornell University. 2. Molly Brown, Centenary College. 3. Katie Riecke, Syracuse University. 4. Jessica Feil, Skidmore College. 5. Caitlin Hartman, Alfred University. 6. Alexa Lass, Centenary College. 7. Lindsay Maroney, Fairfield University. 8. Risa Bernstein, University of Rochester.

Team Novice Equitation On The Flat: 1. Grier Filley, Skidmore College. 2. Hadley Deming, St. Lawrence University. 3. Marissa Cohen, Centenary College. 4. Juliana Goldlust, New York University.

Alumni Equitation On The Flat: 1. Kristine Kennedy, Drew University. 2. Angela Netoskie, Pace University. 3. Lisa Tomaselli, Virginia Tech. 4. Amanda Bon-Keen, Wesleyan University. 5. Audra Ravo, Ithaca College. 6. Amy Gregonis, Centenary College. 7. Jennifer Collins, C.W. Post College - Long Island University. 8. Amanda Gerdts, Salve Regina University.

Individual Walk-Trot-Canter Equitation On The Flat: 1. Kristen Putnam, St. Lawrence University. 2. Billie Taft, Skidmore College. 3. Meredith Reid, Nazareth College. 4. Lauren Wu, Cornell University. 5. Jessica Sweeney, St. Lawrence University. 6. Erin McKeon, St. Joseph's College (NY). 7. Laura Roberts, Skidmore College. 8. Corinne Noble, United States Military Academy.

Team Walk-Trot-Canter Equitation On The Flat: 1. Ashlynne Jones, Centenary College. 2. Hanae Kimura, Skidmore College. 3. Mallory Roberts, St. Lawrence University. 4. Alexandra Goldman, New York University.

Individual Walk-Trot Equitation On The Flat: 1. Ariana Bray, Hartwick College. 2. Megan Tritsch, Centenary College. 3. Amanda Eames, State University of New York at New Paltz. 4. Marie Ceranowicz, Cornell University. 5. Caitlin Malone, Nazareth College. 6. Kelly Nelson, State University of New York at Geneseo. 7. Stephanie Hines, Dowling College. 8. Hannah Lipsky, Skidmore College.

Team Walk-Trot Equitation On The Flat: 1. Rebecca Rawling, Skidmore College. 2. Arina Chesnokova, New York University. 3. Nick Dephtereos, St. Lawrence University. 4. Mary Bogatko, Centenary College.

Final Hunter Seat Team Totals, with the top three teams advancing to IHSA Nationals May 8th through 11th in Burbank, California: Skidmore College 48 (Champion), Centenary College 37 (Reserve; Won first tiebreaker which was most blue ribbons), St. Lawrence University 37 and New York University 30.

(Special thanks to Tammy Dunn for her help in gathering these results - Editor)