March 27, 2005

The South Carolina equestrian team traveled to Lexington to challenge the Kentucky Wildcats. The Gamecocks outperformed Kentucky in all divisions but one to win 955 points to 856.

The western team had a strong performance defeating UK’s western team by 123 points. Junior Ashleigh Collins won the point spread in reining, defeating Jessica Schellenberger by 48. Collins also defeated her horsemanship opponent, Claudia Meeks. Junior Courtney Borton won the point spread in horsemanship, defeating Jessica Taylor by 16. All five USC reiners defeated their counterparts in the reining division. Freshman Katy Biffle, freshman Lindsay Williams, sophomore Rachel Sternoff, junior Laura Pipkin and Collins comprised the reining team. Along with Collins and Borton, Biffle defeated her opponent in horsemanship as well.

The hunt seat team did not fair as well. The Lady Wildcats defeated the Lady Gamecocks by 24 points. Sophomore Claire Sharp won the point spread over fences by defeating Katie Masten by 10. In equitation, junior Tara Brothers and sophomore Kelley Campbell defeated Callie Schott and Katie Masten respectively.

“I am very proud of our western team this weekend. They have been deserving of some recognition for their hard work and that hard work paid off for them today.” Coach Duncan said. “Our hunt seat team had a few mishaps this past week that required several position changes and girls had to step up to fill in some gaps. I think they did a good job of that, especially Claire who won the point spread over fences. Obviously, it would have been better if our hunt seat team won as well but Kentucky had a very competitive team and it wasn’t our day to win.” Sharp learned she would be jumping for the team on Friday morning after one of her teammates had a fall on Thursday that prevented her from making the trip to Lexington.

The Equestrian team has finished their regular season and will next compete at home in the Southern Equestrian Championships on April 9 against the University of Georgia and Auburn University.

Be sure to come visit the Equestrian team at the baseball game this Friday evening. The team will have two horses available for spectators to be photographed with for free. The team will be available for pictures from 5:30 until the first pitch at 7 PM.