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From Glen Gardner, New Jersey, Virginia Intermont College senior Andrea MacQueen (pictured) won her intermediate flat class at the 2011 Winter Tournament of Champions on January 29th. Though MacQueen was the only VI rider to win a blue ribbon, the entire team won a blue by virtue of outscoring the other 20 teams in attendance.

VIRGINIA INTERMONT COLLEGE WINS COMFORTABLY BY TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS STANDARDS

(Xavier University of Ohio Head Coach Jim Arrigon - who came up with idea for the Tournament of Champions series while coaching at Miami of Ohio and who has held Tournament shows since 1992 with the help of wife Gwen - wrote a press release following the Winter Tournament of Champions invitational event hosted by the Chatham Hall School in Chatham, Virginia on January 29th. His press release is repeated here with some minor changes as well as a 'Bonus Coverage' paragraph at the end - Editor.)

Chatham, VA - The most highly decorated collegiate equestrian team of the past decade had been in a bit of a slump. Virginia Intermont College has won more IHSA Nationals than anyone in the 21st century and they’ve displayed the Tournament of Champions Series Champion Trophy on campus seven times during that period, but they had not won a Tournament of Champions show since December 2008. VI struck back at the Tournament of Champions Winter Classic horse show on January 29th. With five second places and a third VI was the picture of consistency, with their only blue ribbon winner being Andrea MacQueen in the intermediate flat class. Their point total of 36 made VI the easy winner, and was enough to propel them into the lead for 2010-11 Tournament Series Champion Team as well.

The field of teams for this Winter Classic was probably one of the most competitive ever, demonstrated with twelve different teams on the scoreboard in the first two classes. By the time Annelise Wilhite of South Carolina won the second section of Open Fences nearly every team present was on the scoreboard.

Delaware Valley was the other consistent team - with two blue ribbons and four reds - but two zeros and a green ribbon left a gap too large for the Aggies to overcome. Interestingly Delaware Valley open rider Ciara Menkens went on win the Tournament of Champions Medal division despite managing only a single point in two open team classes. Late in the day the Aggies got consecutive blue ribbons from Chelsea Koerper in Novice Fences and Melissa Milligan in Walk-Trot to streak towards the top of the pack after lingering back most of the day. Nineteen points in their final three classes was enough to launch Del Val to Reserve Champion with 30 points, an effort strong enough to earn them Series Reserve Champion honors as well. The Aggies had previously won the December Holiday Tournament of Champions event by a point over St. Andrews Presbyterian College.

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We admit it. This photo of Ciara Menkens was in fact taken at the October 10th Bucks County Community College show and not at the Winter Tournament (likewise the photo of MacQueen is from the Pre-season Tournament). Nevertheless the Delaware Valley College sophomore from Brick Township, New Jersey was best in a field of 22 riders to win the Medal division. The Medal class is held at tournament events in lieu of a ride-off for high point.

St. Andrews started strong again, and by midday the Knights looked like they would stay with VI. However a slow finish combined with Del Val's late run and VI's consistant effort sent St. Andrews to third Place. Mount Holyoke finished strong with 11 points in the final two classes. The Lyons claimed fifth place via a tiebreaker over another perennially strong finisher, Virginia Tech. The Hokies, which had won the Tournament series trophy last season, would finish fourth over three tournament events behind VI, Del Val and St. Andrews. Lynchburg College rounded out the field of underachievers, finishing back in the pack with an uncharacteristically mediocre performance. The Hokies and Hornets had come into the weekend in first and third place, respectively, for the Series Championship. With 14 of the 21 teams entered currently leading their regions the day was assured to prove frustrating for many.

The big surprise was West Virginia University, whose 25 points were enough to earn fourth Place for the Mountaineers. West Virginia was paced by Miranda Cain’s early open fences win and Kait Scott’s blue ribbon late in the day in novice fences. The Mountaineers had surprised many with a seventh place finish at the Tournament of Champions PreSeason Classic at Goucher College on September 26th.

The other surprisingly strong performance came from the the University of New Hampshire. Competing in their second consecutive tournament event (and fourth since December 2009) the Wildcats scored 20 points and took home their first-ever Tournament of Champions team ribbon (seventh place). Rounding out the top eight was the University of Mary Washington, who followed up their Champion performance at the Tournament of Champions Preseason Classic in September with eighth place at the Chatham Hall school today.

Virginia Intermont Head Coach Eddie Federwisch’s New Year’s resolution was to turn up the heat on his team in 2011 and it paid dividends in the first month of this new year. Intermont took the Series Champion trophy home to Bristol for a record eighth time. The Series Championship is awarded to the highest point total of the Holiday Tournament and one other show. Skidmore College scored enough points in the Holiday Tournament alone to finish in the top ten even though they missed the other two Tournament events. Mary Washington scored 53 points in two shows but did not compete in the required Holiday Tournament to qualify for the series trophy.

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At last! A photo actually taken at the 2011 Winter Tournament. Virginia Intermont College Head Coach Eddie Federwisch (on left) and Xavier University of Ohio Head Coach (and tournament creator) Jim Arrigon pose with Ashley Wells (center), who won the inaugural Equestrian Talent Search Medal division. This particular division was created for high school-aged riders to compete in front of IHSA Head Coaches. From Erie, Pennsylvania, Wells beat out 20 other high school aged riders and received a $5,000.00 scholarship offer (and a team jacket) on behalf of Virginia Intermont (photo by Angie Akers).


The newest feature of the Tournament of Champions was the Equestrian Talent Search Medal class, for which top high school riders were invited to participate based on their performances in the Equestrian Talent Search series of clinics held at six locations around the country over the previous 12 months. Virginia Intermont College sponsored the ETS Medal division, offering a five thousand dollar scholarship to the winner. Twenty-two riders began the class with equitation on the flat performances, after which judge Sarah Good chose twelve to return for a jumping phase. Using the same format as the collegiate Medal division, four riders were invited back for further testing after the fences rounds. The winner of the ETS Medal and the VIC scholarship was Ashley Wells, a senior from Erie, Pennsylvania, who trains with Edinboro University of Pennsylvania head coach Lew Trumble. Wells now has a choice to make, as she had previously committed to Lynchburg's class of 2015. The Reserve Champion was Kayla Akers, a senior from Cincinnati, Ohio. Akers trains with Jim Arrigon at Beckett Run and was part of the 2009 Interscholastic Equestrian Association National Champion team. Akers hopes to ride next year for either Virginia Intermont College or St. Andrews Presbyterian College.

Next Year’s Tournament of Champions Series will begin at Otterbein University in Columbus, Ohio with the Pre-Season Classic in late September. The 20th Anniversary Holiday Tournament at Centenary College in Hackettstown, New Jersey will follow in December. The site for the Winter Tournament event is still to be decided. The Equestrian Talent Search clinic will return to Chatham Hall this March, followed by a clinic Randolph College in July. Chatham Hall and Equestrian Director Cricket Stone (herself a former IHSA coach) provided a wonderfully festive facility and about half the horses used in today's show. The remainder of the horses were provided by Virginia Intermont College, Sweet Briar College, Virginia Tech and Randolph College. Teams enjoyed a sunny day in Chatham, with temperatures nearing 60 degrees. This was a much-welcomed break for the many teams which had traveled from the Northeast and Midwest where snow has fallen consistantly every week.

--Jim Arrigon

Bonus Coverage: For the first time since 2005 no school had two separate teams of eight people entered in a Tournament of Champions event. This meant no funny names to tell the teams apart, such as Mount Holyoke Team Silly or Team Bandz or the frequently-seen Virginia Tech Team Enter Sandman...We at Campus Equestrian do not know where Olivia Smith of Sweet Briar College calls home. If Smith (who was second in the Medal division to Menkens) resides north of the Potomic river then each of the top six riders in the Medal division would be from the Northeast. Rob Jacobs of St. Andrews (sixth place) is from Maryland, Paige Messick of Virginia Tech (fourth place) is from Delaware, Kelly Gerland of Lynchburg (third) is from Pennsylvania while both Menkens and Danielle Miranda of Lafayette College (fifth) call New Jersey home (it was later pointed out to us that Smith is from Darien, Connecticut, giving Northeastern States a clean sweep of the top six)...Virginia Intermont's six-point margin of victory was the second-biggest since VI won a tie-breaker with Centenary College in December 2008. Starting with that touranment event five of the next six were decided by four points or less, with the lone exception being one half of Centenary trampling another half 43-25 with one of two Mount Holyoke teams third with 22 points in December of 2009...Speaking of the Cyclones the 2010-11 season is the first since 2002-03 that Centenary did not take part in any Tournament of Champions series events. How the Cyclones might have faired in any of the three events this season will be debatable, though to their credit the Cyclones are currently undefeated through seven fall Zone 3, Region 3 hunter seat shows...Less than three weeks before the Winter Tournament West Virginia University was not among the schools scheduled to compete. One school located in Zone 6 (which shall be nameless) was a late scratch allowing the Mountaineers to compete and turn in perhaps their best effort to date in a tournament series event.

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"Henry" (on far left) and "Samson" (on far right) joined Virginia Intermont College for a 2011 Champion Team Photo. Ashley Miller (third from left) and Amanda Shamer (fifth from left) are the only VI riders in this photo to have competed the last time VI won a tournament event in December 2008 (photo by Bethany Coogle).


Team Totals: Virginia Intermont College (High Point Team) 36; Delaware Valley College (Reserve) 30; St. Andrews Presbyterian College 28; West Virginia University 25; Mount Holyoke College 23; Virginia Tech 23; University of New Hampshire 20; University of Mary Washington 19; Penn State University (State College) 18; Sweet Briar College 16; Lynchburg College 15; Lafayette College 15; University of South Carolina (Columbia) 14; Tufts University 13; Randolph College 12; University of the South 12; Stonehill College 10; Dartmouth College 10; University of Michigan 6; Xavier University of Ohio 4 and University of Wisconsin at Madison 4.

Results of Medal Division: 1. Ciara Menkens, Delaware Valley College. 2. Oliva Smith, Sweet Briar College. 3. Kelly Gerland, Lynchburg College. 4. Paige Messick, Virginia Tech. 5. Danielle Miranda, Lafayette College. 6. Rob Jacobs, St. Andrews Presbyterian College. 7. Miranda Cain, West Virginia University. 8. Elizabeth Tripp, Mount Holyoke College. 9. Lizzie Kerron, Randolph College. 10. JoJo Gutfarb, Mount Holyoke College.

Results of Equestrian Talent Search Medal Division: 1. Ashley Wells, senior, Erie, Pennsylvania. 2. Kayla Akers, senior, West Chester, Ohio. 3. Beth Soloman, senior, Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania. 4. Justice Filimonuk, sophomore, West Chester, Ohio. 5. Meghan Hynes, senior, York, Maine. 6. Jenna Pagano, senior, Charlotte, North Carolina. 7. Maren Sherrill, Sophomore, Oak Ridge, North Carolina. 8. Ally D'Amico, junior, Cheshire, Connecticut. 9. Katie Fisher, sophomore, Amherst, Virginia. 10. Jenna Boillotat, sophomore, Etna, New Hampshire.

Tournament Series Championship (top ten): 1. Virginia Intermont College (champion) 62; Delaware Valley College (reserve) 58; St. Andrews Presbyterian College 55; Virginia Tech 47; Mount Holyoke College 44; Lynchburg College 42; West Virginia University 39; Penn State University (State College) 34; University of New Hampshire 33; Tufts University 32.

 


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