SIMSBURY, Conn. -- The Mount Holyoke College hunt seat riding team took first place among 10 teams, their fifth win in as many shows this season, Sunday at the Trinity College Show held at Folly Farms.
High Point awards went to junior Megan Bliamptis (Reserve High Point Intro), first-year Az Reading (Reserve High Point Novice), sophomore Eliza Mutz (Reserve High Point Intermediate), junior Hallie Phillips (High Point Intermediate), and first-year Bessie Huggins (High Point Novice). Bliamptis also qualified for Regionals in Intro, as did Phillips in Intermediate Fences.
The day started off with Open Fences, with senior captain Camille Cheng (Goleta, Calif.) finishing just outside the ribbons, and senior Cate Bates (Montclair, N.J.) finished fourth. Up next, sophomore Montserrat Hartwig (Santa Rosa, Calif.) made her Intermediate Fences debut with a fourth place finish in Section A. In Section B, Mutz rode to a third place finish, and Phillips finished first.
Cheng and Bates returned in Open flat, riding to a fourth and sixth place finish respectively. Next up, Mutz and junior Charlotte Subak (Brooklyn, N.Y.) re-entered the ring for Intermediate flat, placing first and fourth. In the second intermediate flat class, Phillips finished second.
Our Introductory riders were up next. Senior Lakshyaa Sreekumar (Mississauga, Ontario) took fourth place in Section A. In Section B, sophomore Anna Ji (Shanghai, China) earned a fourth place ribbon in her first ever horse show. Bliamptis won the class, pointing out and qualifying for Regional Finals in the spring.
Subak was the first of MHC's Limit fences riders to take to the ring, earning a second place ribbon. First-year Alyssa Martinsen (Arlington Heights, Ill.) finished third in Section B, and junior Charlie May (Stockton, N.J.) took fifth in Section C.
That concluded all the jumping classes for the day, and the show moved on to Limit Flat. First-year Emi Graf (Belmont, Mass.) earned a first place ribbon in Section A, senior Mara Downie (Holyoke, Mass.) was third in Section B, and Martinsen was fourth in Section C.
MHC's only Novice rider of the day, Huggins, took blue in her class. Senior Faith Marley (Belchertown, Mass.) was next, earning sixth place in Pre-Novice. Junior Victoria Schubarg (Dobson, N.C.) then rode to a fourth-place finish in Section B. And, in the final class of the day, Reading took first place, earning enough points to move from Pre-Novice into Novice.
Mount Holyoke's next competition is the second Mount Holyoke Show, to be held at the MHC Equestrian Center on Nov. 16.
-- Reporting by Cate Bates
