Seen here performing her reining pattern at 2013 IHSA Nationals in
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Berry College senior Andrea Smith will be making her third
appearance in the individual AQHA High Point Rider competition this May. (photo courtesy
Andrea Smith).
THE INDIVIDUAL AQHA HIGH POINT RIDER DIVISION QUALIFIERS
For the second year in a row IHSA Nationals will be held at the
Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The
IHSA National show is usually held the first weekend in May and
this is the case in 2014. The show will start on May 1st but for
nearly everyone who is entered to show Western the competition
really begins on Friday, May 2nd. The first day of Nationals is
an all-hunter seat affair, but after day one is over, better than
50 percent of what remains is for those who walk, jog and in many
cases, lope.
And for those who have shown throughout the season in both open
divisions, and who managed to earn the most combined reining and
rail points in their region, this means they will advance directly
to Nationals to compete for the indivdiual AQHA High Point Open
Rider award.
Through March 9th the entire field for the individual AQHA at
Nationals had been set, save for perhaps one. Campus Equestrian
has been unable to determine if the western show season has come
to an end in Zone 6, Region 4. The final doubleheader scheduled
for January 25th was cancelled due to snow. A make-up date was
to be announced but no one has informed us of a date. Therefore
it is not clear to us if the shows were made up or if the season
officially ended on January 12th with the January 25th shows not
being made up or if the make-up shows are this coming weekend.
In any event if you are part of this region made up of Michigan
schools plus the University of Western Ontario we would be
grateful to hear from you.
Since the field is nearly complete a few statistics jump out
at us. Eight riders are returnees from the 2013 individual AQHA
competition. Two of them also competed in the division at 2012
Nationals in Raleigh while Ohio State University senior Austin
Griffith is that rare breed who qualified as the top rider in
his region each of his four school years. Griffith is not only
the defending champion, he has won it each of the past two
seasons. If Griffith does it again he will tie 2002 Texas A & M
University graduate Quincy Cahill as the only western rider ever
to win the individual AQHA High Point Rider Award at three IHSA
National shows.
If you follow the Academy Awards then you may know that when
a film has won the 'Best Picture' award since 1957 only nine
times has the film's director not won 'Best Director' the same
year. This year 22 of the confirmed Western Region Champion
Teams can claim one of their open riders is going to Nationals
to compete for the individual AQHA award. The only exceptions
to this are Leah DiGioia of the State University of New York at
Cobleskill (Morrisville State College is Zone 2, Region 3 high
point team), Ginger Ullrich of Slippery Rock University (West
Virginia University is Zone 6, Region 5 champ) and Sunni Hecht
of Rocky Mountain College, who has qualified in the individual
AQHA each of the past two seasons even though Utah State
University has prevailed in Zone 8, Region 3 each time. Perhaps
the moral here is that more often than not you need a superior
open rider to win your region.
Most trivial piece of trivia you will hear all week: None of
the 25 riders listed below finished in a tie for high point
rider at the end of the regular season and therefore would have
needed to ride off at Regionals to determine who advanced to
Nationals. Usually there are one or two cases each year where
there is a tie after six to ten shows (strangely enough the
region we are still waiting to hear from, Zone 6, Region 4, could
claim at tie for first through January 12). The closest race we
know of was in Zone 8, Region 5 where Katrina Quick of the
University of Nebraska at Lincoln edged out teammate Dustin Renkin
by a 91-89 margin.
Quick was sixth in the division at 2013 Nationals, Rebekah
Strunk of Clemson fifth and Griffith first. These are the only
three to make the top ten last season that have a chance to do so
again this May. I think these are enough statistics for this
time around. But once we find out who is representing Region 4
who knows what we will have to say about the individual AQHA!
(Editor's Note: We were informed by an alumni rider in another
region that Albion College is the Zone 6, Region 4 Western High
Point Team and that Morgan Carey of Albion College is the high
point rider. Thus the field for the individual AQHA is complete.)
--Steve Maxwell
The known 2014 IHSA Nationals Individual AQHA Qualifiers, each of whom will compete
for the Individual AQHA High Point Rider award May 1st through 4th in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. An
asterisk * denotes a rider who competed in the same division at 2013 Nationals:
ZONE 1, REGION 3: Emily Murch, Mount Holyoke College
ZONE 2, REGION 1: Lexi Buckheit, Alfred University
ZONE 2, REGION 2: Samantha Kirby, Oswego State University
ZONE 2, REGION 3: Leah DiGioia, State University of New York at Cobleskill
ZONE 3, REGION 2: Kendra Clarke, Delaware Valley College
ZONE 3, REGION 3: Shelby Cashman, Centenary College
ZONE 3, REGION 5: Nicole Smith, University of Delaware
ZONE 4, REGION 3: Michelle Hustad, St. Andrews University
ZONE 5, REGION 1: Cayce Turner, Middle Tennessee State University
ZONE 5, REGION 2: Andrea Smith, Berry College*
ZONE 5, REGION 3: Rebekah Strunk, Clemson University*
ZONE 5, REGION 5: Morgan Sykes, University of Central Florida
ZONE 6, REGION 1: Josh Clevenger, University of Findlay
ZONE 6, REGION 2: Austin Griffith, Ohio State University*
ZONE 6, REGION 3: Allison Board, University of Kentucky*
ZONE 6, REGION 4: Morgan Carey, Albion College
ZONE 6, REGION 5: Ginger Ullrich, Slippery Rock University
ZONE 7, REGION 1: Ali Mahloch, St. Mary of the Woods College
ZONE 7, REGION 2: Julia Roberts, West Texas A & M University
ZONE 7, REGION 3: Alie Leonhart, University of Wisconsin at River Falls*
ZONE 7, REGION 5: Alex Miller, Black Hawk College
ZONE 8, REGION 1: Carson Kautz, Stanford University
ZONE 8, REGION 2: McKenna Coveney, Cal Poly - Pomona
ZONE 8, REGION 3: Sunni Hecht, Rocky Mountain College*
ZONE 8, REGION 4: Emily Honey, Oregon State University*
ZONE 8, REGION 5: Katrina Quick, University of Nebraska at Lincoln*
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