SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. -- The first Mount Holyoke Show of the IHSA season was a special one for the Lyons varsity hunt seat riding team Saturday at the MHC Equestrian Center. Mount Holyoke took advantage of beautiful weather to hold the show at its outdoor facilities, and the Lyons meanwhile took first place among 10 competing teams, outscoring runner-up UMass-Amherst by seven points.

Mount Holyoke saw five riders win High Point awards and three additional riders qualifying for Regionals in the spring, in sophomores Grace Neumuth (Marlborough, Conn.) in Novice, Montserrat Hartwig (Santa Rosa, Calif.) in Limit Fences and sophomore Eliza Mutz (Stanford, Calif.) in Limit Flat. Senior Cate Bates (Montclair, N.J.) won Reserve High Point Rider honors, along with first-year Alyssa Martinsen (Arlington Heights, Ill.) as Reserve High Point Limit, sophomore Lainey Nibbio (Glen Ellyn, Ill.) as High Point Novice, junior Lila Hancock (Morrisville, Vt.) as Reserve High Point Novice, and junior Lia Liang (Beijing, China) as High Point Introductory.

Mount Holyoke scored 39 points and was followed by UMass-Amherst (32), Bentley (24), Springfield (22), Amherst (21), Worcester State (19), Smith (12), Williams (8), WPI (8), and Bennington (5).

The day kicked off with a ride from a special guest. Sporting a cowboy hat, the founder of the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association, Bob Cacchione, rode Viktor during the national anthem.

For the first time this season, there were two sections of Open Fences. Senior captain Camille Cheng (Goleta, Calif.) kicked it off with a lovely ride on Ivan to take third. Bates took second place in Section B.

In Intermediate Fences Section A, sophomore Carly Bitler (Seymour, Ill.) placed fifth. Next, Mutz made her Intermediate fences debut with a fourth place finish.

In the first of the Limit Fences classes, senior Dekyi Deji (Beijing, China) placed first aboard Rusty along with classmate Mara Downie (Holyoke, Mass.), who took fourth in that class.

In Section B, first-years Emi Graf (Belmont, Mass.) and Martinsen rode to a second- and third-place finish, respectively. Section C saw junior Charlie May (Stockton, N.J.) in third, and Hartwig in fourth. Rounding out the jumping classes in a 1-2 finish were seniors True Usiatynski (Fayetteville, N.Y.) and Mads Hurley (Portland, Maine).

After a flat schooling break, we started back up in Open Flat where Bates took first and Cheng third.

Next up was first-year Emma Jablonka (Westfield, N.J.) in Novice Flat section A, earning a third place ribbon. In Section B, Nibbio took the win. First-year Nicole Richards (Middletown, R.I.) and Hancock were next, taking third and first, respectively. Neumuth finished off the Novice classes with a win in Section D.

Junior Charlotte Subak (Brooklyn, N.Y.) debuted in Intermediate Flat, riding Rusty to a second-place finish.

Five sections of Limit Flat followed, starting off with Graf taking second in Section A. Hartwig kept the red ribbons coming with a second place finish in Section B, and Mutz returned to the ring to take the win in Section C.

In the first section of Intro, MHC's two riders topped the class -- Liang taking the blue with senior Zhuohan Shen (Shanghai, China) just behind her in second. Senior Lakshyaa Sreekumar (Mississauga, Ontario) was up next, putting in a nice ride to earn second place.

The show then returned to Limit flat. Downie and Hurley, the two announcers for the day, rode to a first and fifth place finish. Martinsen rode in the concluding Limit Flat class, earning a blue ribbon for her ride.

Senior Ririka Kakuta (Tokyo, Japan) made her Pre-Novice debut, taking first in Section A. Junior Nina Pereira (Easthampton, Mass.) finished in second place alongside her teammate in the same class.

First-year Sarah Reading (San Luis Obispo, Calif.) entered the ring for Section B of Pre-Novice, and finished the regularly scheduled classes with a first-place ribbon.

There were three riders tied for Reserve High Point Rider, including Bates. She rode Pablo in a ride-off, which included work without irons. Bates won the ride-off, securing the title of Reserve High Point Rider.

Mount Holyoke returns to competition next Saturday, Nov. 3 at the Trinity College Show, held at Folly Farm in Simsbury, Conn.

-- Reporting by Cate Bates