At this moment they knew who was third through eighth in the Equestrian Talent Search High School Medal division. The question was which of the two would be Champion and Reserve. High School junior Christina Martinelli (on right) would hear her name next while 2011 high school graduate Meaghan Hynes (on left) would win the blue ribbon moments later.

MOUNT HOLYOKE COLLEGE WINS WINTER TOURNAMENT AND 2011-12 TOURNAMENT SERIES TROPHY

Fredericksburg, VA - Most IHSA teams that were entered in the 2012 Winter Tournament of Champions event at Hazelwild Farm got there by way of the automobile. A small number of teams (such as Dartmouth College) flew most of the way before renting vehicles at the airport to get to Fredericksburg.

And then there was Mount Holyoke College. The Lyons met up at 4:15AM on a Friday morning to drive to the Springfield, Massachusetts train station for a 6AM Amtrack train to Washington, DC. At 1:00PM the train had made it through the rain to Union Station in DC where the Lyons rented two vans and then went sightseeing. After getting lost trying to leave Washington during rush hour (resulting in leaving the city but then having to re-enter it to go out the other side) the Lyons enjoyed dinner at Cracker Barrel, a night at the Comfort Inn and two days later more sightseeing and a return train to Springfield.

And on the Saturday in between the Mount Holyoke College Lyons earned 42 of a possible 56 points to win the 2012 Winter Tournament of Champions event on January 28th. Felicia Harrsch (sophomore, from Landsdale, Pennsylvania) opened the event with a win in intermediate flat while Lexie Lohrer (sophomore, from Carlisle, Massachusetts) won the open over fences class which followed. The Lyons led the competition from start to finish, ending up with four blue ribbons, two red ones and a yellow. In addition both Margaret Swanson and Flynn Vickowski made the top ten in the Collegiate Medal Class which substitutes for a ride-off at all recent Tournament of Champions series events.

Twelve of the twenty-four riders who took part in the Tournament of Champions Collegiate Medal Class survived the flat phase and got to jump in the jumping phase. From left to right are Margaret Swanson (Mount Holyoke College), Flynn Vickowski (Mount Holyoke), Danielle Miranda (Lafayette College), Blake Roberts (Virginia Intermont College), Danielle Clark (Virginia Intermont), Samantha Sagot (Rutgers University), Jennifer Osterman (Virginia Tech), Ciara Menkens (Delaware Valley College), Kelly Gerland (Lynchburg College), Brendan Weiss (Penn State University), Katie Hansen (St. Andrews University) and Katie Fink (Cornell University). Four of these twelve riders were tested further, with Menkens the eventual champion.

Reserve Champion was Virginia Intermont College's Black Team with 33 points while the VI Gold Team scored 32 for third place. Virginia Intermont College was one of three schools to bring two squads of up to eight riders each. Delaware Valley College, which won the 2010 Winter Tournament of Champions event at Hazelwild Farm nearly two years ago to today won a tiebreaker with Virginia Tech for fourth place as both teams scored 27 points. Rounding out the top eight were St. Andrews University with 22 points, Cornell University with 21 points and Lynchburg College's 'Pulled Pork' team with 20.

Ciara Menkens of Delaware Valley College won the Collegiate Medal division for the second time in a year, having won the 2011 Medal class at the Chatham Hall school the previous January. A junior from Brick, New Jersey Menkens was one of four riders to survive both the flat and over fences phases to take part in a work-off phase (between the two phases Menkens also found time to win her open flat class). Blake Roberts, a Virginia Intermont College sophomore from Knoxville, Tennessee who was second for the Black team in intermediate flat was the Reserve Champion. Menkens and Roberts were the only two riders in the work-off phase to complete the test without a refusal.

The January 2011 Chatham Hall winter tournament marked the debut of the Equestrian Talent Search High School Medal division. Riders who took part in one of Tournament of Champions series creator Jim Arrigon's Equestrian Talent Search clinics were eligible to compete in the division. Meaghan Hynes, a 2011 graduate of York High School in York, Maine (and a former member of the IEA's York Equestrian Team) had previously taken part in a January 2011 ETS held at Mount Holyoke. Hynes was the best in a field of 13 riders to become the fourth individual to win the ETS High School Medal division. Hynes also won a $5,000.00 scholarship to Virginia Intermont College. Christina Martinelli, a high school junior from Oxford, Connecticut (who rode for the IEA River's Edge Farm team during the 2010-11 season) was the Reserve Champion.

Mount Holyoke College collected the final award of the day when Gwen Arrigon presented Lyons Head Coach C.J. Law with the Tournament of Champions series trophy. To earn the trophy a team must take part in at least two of the three Tournament of Champions events. If a team takes part in all three events then the lowest score from their three appearances is dropped. Mount Holyoke was seventh at the Pre-Season Tournament (the drop score), reserve champion with 35 points at the Holiday Tournament and champion with 42 points at today's event. The Lyons' final margin in the series for 2011-12 was 77-61 over Virginia Intermont while Delaware Valley (the 2010-11 series champion) was third with 58 points. It was Mount Holyoke's second time as the Tournament series champion, the Lyons having also returned to Western Massachusetts with the Trophy in early 2008, though on that ocassion the Tournament Trophy did not get to take a train ride!

(Campus Equestrian is in the process of preparing an expanded version of our 2012 Winter Tournament Story. Please check back later this week for a longer version with more photos.)

---Steve Maxwell

Show Incidentals: Sunny skies, with temperatures reaching the upper '50's. Entire show held indoors. Start time: 9:05AM. Finish: 3:20PM (Not Including Awards Presentation) - Coaches and Captains meeting held prior to start of show. Judge: Woody Dykers, Atlanta, GA. Stewards: Patte Zumbrun/Goucher College, Sally Batton/Dartmouth College and Cory Kieschnick/Delaware Valley College.

Though she had not been on a train trip since she was growing up it was Head Coach C.J. Law's idea to take the Mount Holyoke team to Washington by train. Law (on far left) and the Mount Holyoke team saw such sites as the Lincoln and Vietnam Memorials on Friday and Arlington National Cemetary on Sunday while finding time in between to win the Winter Tournament of Champions by nine points over Virginia Intermont.

Class-by-class Results, in the order in which they were held:

Intermediate Equitation On The Flat, Section A: 1. Felicia Harrsch, Mount Holyoke College. 2. Blake Roberts, Virginia Iintermont College. 3. Georgiana deRham, Cornell University. 4. Alanna Reiner, Lafayette College. 5. Sami Cram, St. Andrews University. 6. Kari Searls, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Open Equitation Over Fences, Section A: 1. Lexie Lohrer, Mount Holyoke College. 2. Karli Postel, Goucher College. 3. Corrine Frederickson, University of Mary Washington - Team Blue. 4. Kaitlin Eckenberger, Sweet Briar College. 6. Cristina Herren, Dartmouth College. 6. Jennifer Osterman, Virginia Tech.

Intermediate Equitation On The Flat, Section B: 1. Kelsey Ficara, Delaware Valley College. 2. Ariel Black, Virginia Intermont College - Team Gold. 3. Emilia Sanchez, University of Mary Washington - Team Blue. 4. Emily Denning, Penn State University (State College). 5. Megan Kunsman, Virginia Tech. 6. Addie Jabin, Goucher College.

Open Equitation Over Fences, Section B: 1. Bronwyn Scrivens, Cornell University. 2. Kelly Gerland, Lynchburg College - Team Pulled Pork. 3. Kerry Sachs, Tufts University. 4. Brendan Weiss, Penn State University (State College). 5. Lauren Fay, Virginia Intermont College - Team Gold. 6. Courtney Bryggman, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Intermediate Equitation Over Fences, Section A: 1. Alanna Reiner, Lafayette College. 2. Kali Cram, St. Andrews University. 3. Katie Lazarski, Tufts University. 4. Devin Cox, University of Mary Washington - Team Gray. 5. Ashleigh Ramey, Virginia Intermont College. 6. Alison Healey, Penn State University (State College).

Walk-Trot-Canter Equitation On The Flat, Section A: 1. Kayla Akers, Virginia Intermont College - Team Black. 2. Samantha Stone, Mount Holyoke College. 3. Maria Rittenhouse, Virginia Tech. 4. Maya Johnson, Dartmouth College. 5. Rachel Walter, Rutgers University. 6. Callie Hodge, Goucher College.

Intermediate Equitation Over Fences, Section B: 1. Sarah Truchon, University of New Hampshire. 2. Nell Maynard, Mount Holyoke College. 3. Jessica Ropelewski, Virginia Tech. 4. Abigail Parker, Virginia Intermont College - Team Black. 5. Addie Jabin, Goucher College. 6. Molly Banfield, University of Mary Washington - Team Blue.

Novice Equitation On The Flat, Section A: 1. Joey Fink, Goucher College. 2. Zoe Sarvis, Virginia Intermont College - Team Black. 3. Helena Witte, Dartmouth College. 4. Alison Hornbaker, Sweet Briar College. 5. Elisabeth Van Embden, Rutgers University. 6. Rachel Calvert, Virginia Tech.

Walk-Trot Equitation On The Flat, Section A: 1. Shiloh Kozlowski, St. Andrews University. 2. Emma Golonka, University of Massachusetts at Amherst. 3. Taylor Scott, Virginia Intermont College - Team Gold. 4. Helena Xu, Lafayette College. 5. Sarah Conklin, Delaware Valley College. 6. Katie Horng, Cornell University.

Open Equitation On The Flat, Section A: 1. Hannah Thornton, Mount Holyoke College. 2. Jennifer Osterman, Virginia Tech. 3. Audrey Hanlon, Virginia Intermont College - Team Black. 4. Emily Hulak, Rutgers University. 5. Katie Bradshaw, Sweet Briar College. 6. Faye Keegan, Dartmouth College.

Walk-Trot-Canter Equitation On The Flat, Section B: 1. Taylor Dalton, Lynchburg College - Team Pulled Pork. 2. Megan Kelty, Virginia Intermont College - Team Gold. 3. Mary Beth Hannon, Cornell University. 4. Allyson Kriebel, Delaware Valley College. 5. Rachel Negron, Penn State University (State College). 6. Miranda Wright, St. Andrews University.

Novice Equitation Over Fences, Section A: 1. Sami Cram, St. Andrews University. 2. Lauren Wills, Virginia Intermont College - Team Black. 3. Abigayle Raucher, Mount Holyoke College. 4. Eryn Wiley, Sweet Briar College. 5. Helena Witte, Dartmouth College. 6. Samantha Nelson, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Walk-Trot Equitation On The Flat, Section B: 1. So Jin Lee, Mount Holyoke College. 2. Travis Roth, Virginia Tech. 3. Allie Manning, Virginia Intermont College - Team Black. 4. Jacqueline Marinoff, University of New Hampshire. 5. Emma Hamilton, Lynchburg College - Team Beef Brisket. 6. Alexz Goldin, Rutgers University.

Novice Equitation Over Fences, Section B: 1. Rory Mueller, Virginia Intermont College - Team Gold. 2. Cassella Slater, Virginia Tech. 3. Chelsea Koerper, Delaware Valley College. 4. Kelli Greenslade, Lynchburg College - Team Pulled Pork. 5. Amanda Pritt, Penn State University (State College). 6. Joey Fink, Goucher College.

Open Equitation On The Flat, Section B: 1. Ciara Menkens, Delaware Valley College. 2. Katie Fink, Cornell University. 3. Kelly Sullivan, Tufts University. 4. Courtney Bryggman, University of Massachusetts at Amherst. 5. Rebekah Scharfe, Lafayette College. 6. Brendan Weiss, Penn State University (State College).

Novice Equitation On The Flat, Section B: 1. Ashleigh Ramey, Virginia Intermont College - Team Gold. 2. Kelli Greenslade, Lynchburg College - Team Pulled Pork. 3. Elizabeth Parker, Delaware Valley College. 4. Maddy Fass, Penn State University. 5. Isobel Redelmeier, Tufts University. 6. Margaux Sarin, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Equestrian Talent Search High School Medal: 1. Meaghan Hynes, York, Maine. 2. Christina Martinelli, Oxford, Connecticut. 3. Emily Dunn, Manassas, Virginia. 4. Jenna Boillotat, Hanover, New Hampshire. 5. Maggie Kelleher, Lynchburg, Virginia. 6. Sophie Bish, Charlotte, North Carolina. 7. Emily Curran, Katonah, New York. 8. Cary Hundley, Ellicott City, Maryland. (Note: This class was completed before Section B of Open Equitation On The Flat but not announced until after the completion of the Tournament of Champions Collegiate Medal.)

Tournament of Champions Collegiate Medal: 1. Ciara Menkens, Delaware Valley College. 2. Blake Roberts, Virginia Intermont College. 3. Brendan Weiss, Penn State University (State College). 4. Katie Fink, Cornell University. 5. Danielle Clark, Virginia Intermont College. 6. Katie Hansen, St. Andrews University. 7. Kelly Gerland, Lynchburg College. 8. Flynn Vickowski, Mount Holyoke College. 9. Margaret Swanson, Mount Holyoke College. 10. Danielle Miranda, Lafayette College.

Team Totals: Mount Holyoke College (High Point Team) 42; Virginia Intermont College - Team Black (Reserve) 33; Virginia Intermont College - Team Gold (Third) 32; Delaware Valley College (Fourth) 27; Virginia Tech (Fifth) 27; St. Andrews University (Sixth) 22; Cornell University (Seventh) 21; Lynchburg College - Team Pulled Pork (Eighth) 20; Goucher College 17; Lafayette College 15; Penn State University (State College) 15; Tufts University 14; University of Massachusetts at Amherst 12; Dartmouth College 12; Sweet Briar College 11; University of New Hampshire 10; University of Mary Washington - Team Blue 9; Rutgers University 8; University of Mary Washington - Team Gray 3 and Lynchburg College - Team Beef Brisket 2.

(For more info about the Tournament of Champions series or the Equestrian Talent Search, please e-mail JimArrigon@hotmail.com or visit www.BeckettRunRiding.com or visit the Equestrian Talent Search page on Facebook.)