The current and future Villanova Captains get together for a photo after Ellen Hansen won her open flat class on March 13th. From left to right are Hansen (a current Captain), Kara O'Halloran (a Captain in 2011-12), Alexa Asakiewicz (current) and Anne Cullen (2011-12). Hansen's win in the division allowed her to continue to lead the Region 4 open rider standings by four points.

UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE WINS FIRST REGION 4 HUNTER SEAT SHOW OF 2011

Cochranville, PA - Though Villanova University and Washington College did well early, a late morning run by host University of Delaware spelled victory for the Fighting Hens. Their margin of 39-32 over Villanova was not enough to mathematically clinch the first-ever Zone 4, Region 4 Region Title, but it is highly likely the Fighting Hens will pick up eight points in the regular season finale hosted by Valley Forge on March 20th to advance to Zone 4 Zones (and not Zone 3 Zones) for the first time.

After riders from other schools won the first two undergradute classes of the morning Mimi Wesson-Roth (senior, from Penfield, New York) won the first of two rather large sections of intermediate fences. Four classes later Sarah Boland (sophomore, from Williston, Vermont) won the second and final section of open flat. Boland started a three-class winning streak for the Fighting Hens, as Allison Howarth (senior, Milltown, New Jersey) and Abbey Randa (junior, Sherburne, Massachusetts) won consecutive sections of intermediate flat. Maddy Jensen (sophomore, Sierra Madre, California) and Randa later won sections of novice fences while Megan Kostans (freshman, West Chester, Pennsylvania) won the first section of novice flat. Somewhat remarkably each of the first six University of Delaware riders to win classes on March 13th reside in different states when school is not in session. Randa would receive high point rider honors for the day. Alexa Hunter (in intermediate fences), Rachel Wilson (in intermediate flat) and Boland (in open fences) won red ribbons for the Fighting Hens over the first 14 undergraduate classes.

Washington College head coach Chris Bigelow (on far right) saw the Shoremen finish fourth at Farideh Farm on March 13th. Senior Kristie Heitmann (third on left) won her open fences and was second on open flat to help Washington score 23 points.

Villanova University had one of their best days of the season while earning reserve high point team honors. Nicole deVoe (sophomore, from Branchburg, New Jersey) won the first undergraduate class of the day, which was a mixed blessing as teammate Ellen Hansen (senior, from Cheyney, Pennsylvania) was fifth while giving back points to West Chester's Lyndsey Broadhead in what is one of the nation's better Cacchione races. Hansen later won her open flat to re-gain the points that Broadhead had temporarily gained. Hansen still led Broadhead by four points when the day was over. Unless someone was added to the program after it went to print the Wildcats scored their 32 points without the benefit of a walk-trot rider.

Through the first 14 undergraduate classes West Chester University did not have any blue ribbons. However the Golden Rams still finished third for the day with 27 points. Broadhead, a junior from Doylestown, Pennsylvania who was with Bucks County Community College prior to the 2010-11 season, was second in open flat and third in open fences to lead the way for West Chester. Erica Cloud (in intermediate flat), Blanton Goll (in novice fences) and Nicole Ligon (in novice flat) also won red ribbons for the Golden Rams as the day progressed. With only one show remaining West Chester remains on track to finish second in the region, which would be the first time in program history the Golden Rams finished higher than third for a full season.

Washington College was fourth for the day with 23 points. The Shoremen faired very well individually. Kristie Heitmann, a senior from Milford, New Jersey was in the running for reserve high point rider after winning her open fences and placing second in open flat. Heitmann's high-scoring day put her in good postion to finish third behind either Hansen or Broadhead in the Region 4 hunter seat open rider standings for the full season. Molly McCaslin was the first freshman from any school to win a class on March 13th. From Stevensville, Maryland, McCaslin won the third and final section of intermediate flat. Kim-Vi Sweetman was second in novice fences for the Shoremen, who had no riders in either the walk-trot or walk-trot-canter divisions on this day.

Kimberly Dixon makes history! The junior from Westhampton, New Jersey is not only the first rider in Burlington County College history to compete in an IHSA show she also earns the first Burlington ribbon and the first team points. Dixon (holding yellow ribbon) poses with her parents and Burlington head coach Briana Quinn (on right) after placing third in intermediate flat.

Though at least three of their riders took home blue ribbons Drexel University scored only 18 points in finishing fifth for the day. Rachel El-Chaar (sophomore, from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania) was originally to be in the first of two sections of intermediate fences but was moved to the second before the show started to even out numbers. El-Chaar won section 6B. Kelly Reilly (freshman, North Wales, Pennsylvania) won her novice fences while teammate Christine Nowak (freshman, Perkasie, Pennsylvania) repeated the placing in the following section. Earlier in the day Tyler Weith was second to deVoe in open fences. Like all but three teams present the Dragons were without a rider at the walk-trot level.

Deuces were wild for Salisbury University. The SeaGulls received four red ribbons through five of the eight divisions. Tori Rietmulder (freshman, Lewisberry, Pennsylvania) was the first Salisbury rider to place second, finishing behind Wesson-Roth in intermediate fences. Junior Kaitlynn Catterton was second to Randa in intermediate flat while Sarah Kullman and Abigail Koch were runner-up in consecutive sections of novice fences. The SeaGulls scored 16 points.

While Salisbury made their IHSA debut in October, Burlington County College made their first-ever IHSA appearance at today's show. Abigail Sell, Ashley Tucker, Megan Reinhardt and Kimberly Dixon made up coach Briana Quinn's Burlington County roster for their innaugural IHSA appearance. Though she fell in intermediate fences Dixon still earned Burlington's first-ever IHSA ribbon in her next ride. A junior from Westhampton, New Jersey, Dixon was third behind McCaslin and Wilson in intermediate flat. Sell was third in novice fences a short time later. With their appearance at an IHSA show Burlington County College becomes the first school in New Jersey located south of Mercer County (in other words, a true South Jersey school) to show in the IHSA since at least the mid-1980's.

Burlington County finished the day with eight points, which was not the low total for the day. The University of Pennsylvania rounded out the scoring with six points. Perhaps hampered by spring-break issues (which may have affected other teams as well) Penn competed at today's contest without riders in either open division (and perhaps other divisions). Kristen Aigeldinger was fifth in novice fences, and surprisingly this was the Quakers' only ribbon of any kind through the first 14 undergraduate classes. In all honesty all but a handful of classes were made up of nine or ten riders, and in many cases schools had multiple riders entered in these classes. However Penn had no more than one rider in any section which may have hurt their cause. The Quakers did have a rider entered in the walk-trot class which may have been where they received some of their points.

Mimi Wesson-Roth (on left), Sarah Boland (second on right) and Allison Howarth (on far right) were the first three University of Delaware riders to win classes the day the Fighting Hens hosted. Wesson-Roth was a winner in intermediate fences, Boland in open flat and Howarth in intermediate flat as head coach Bryan Bradley (second on left) saw his UDEL team come with eight points of clinching their first region title since 2008 and first as part of Zone 4. And oh yes the University of Delaware captured high point team honors with 39 points.

Windle wins twice, needs one more point on the flat: With eight Region 4 hunter seat shows having taken place during the fall (which will not happen again anytime soon according to at least two coaches in the region) most of the alumni riders entered at today's show had already clinched at least one if not two rides at Regionals. Delaware Valley College graduate Jamie Mast Windle calls alumni over fences her strong suit, and her win in the first class of the day (before open fences) gave her 51 points in the division so far (only 28 are needed to qualify). However Mast Windle entered the day with only 20 alumni flat points, not enough to clinch a place in the division at Regionals at today's event. Mast had one of her better flat rides of the season and became a double-blue winner for the morning. Mast needs one point at the Valley Forge show on the 20th to qualify. West Chester graduate Emily Rosen fell during the very first ride of the morning but recovered nicely with a second in alumni flat later. Rosen was already qualified for Regionals in both divisions. Former Penn Quaker Jess Schatz was third in both divisions. Schatz too was already qualified in both alumni divisions. Wendy Tompkins Myers, a graduate of Salem Teikyo University (now known as Salem International University) in West Virginia, qualified for Regionals at today's event. Myers was second in alumni fences to move from 26 to 31 points. Myers, who coaches the Drexel team, was fourth in alumni flat while another former West Chester rider, Kelley McNeill, was fifth in alumni flat to round out today's alumni ribbons.

Something's missing here: This writer was not feeling his best before arriving at Farideh Farm and learning that the Judge would be an hour late or so due to confusion over the start time didn't help matters. Eventually this writer left Farideh with eight classes remaining. Therefore this story does not include winners (or reserve champions) from the second section of novice flat through the lone section of walk-trot. Also the reserve high point rider honor is not known either. Sorry about this.

And there there was one: Though they were not present at today's show, Valley Forge Military College is still scheduled to host the Region 4 regular season finale on March 20th. Though VFMC has a relatively small team (maybe the same size as Burlington County's new team) this will be the second time this season they have hosted. It will actually be the third time Region 4 will have traveled to Valley Forge Military College for a 2010-11 show, as their on-campus facility is very appropriate for IHSA competition.

---Steve Maxwell

Show Incidentals: Sunny skies, with high temperatures in the low '40's. Start time: 10:13AM. Finish: ??????. Coaches & Captains meeting held prior to start of show. Point cards posted in this region? No. Alumni Classes held in this this region? Yes. Judge: Creigh Duncan, Princeton, NJ. Stewards: McCoy-Palmer/Villanova University; Morrone/University of Pennsylvania and Orem/West Chester University.

Hunter Seat Team Totals: University of Delaware (High Point Team) 39; Villanova University (Reserve) 32; West Chester University 27; Washington College 23; Drexel University 18; Salisbury University 16; Burlington County Community College 8 and University of Pennsylvania 6.

High Point Rider - Abby Randa, University of Delaware
Reserve High Point Rider - ?????????