Western Semi Finals - the Rest of the Story

Congratulations to the IHSA Western Team Zone Champions! Hard work and focus pays off! Below are the complete results from the weekend.

Putting on a horse show is a huge undertaking. Students are involved in every aspect to make it happen. Team members and therapeutic horsemanship students served as horse holders for the day. Rachel Samuel recruited several of her friends to help her with her event management internship. This crew worked tirelessly to organize all the behind the scenes activities. Including preparing bags of goodies for the competitors, overseeing thank you notes from award winners, setting tables for the Pig Pickin’, taking down tents on Sunday when the wind threatened to send them flying and being available to answer questions from visitors regarding any aspect of the show. Jake Hobson volunteered to be the DJ at the Pig Pickin’ keeping the tunes rolling until the last guest left. Other students worked to prepare art work to decorate the party palace for the Saturday night party.

Cami Glaff led a team of well-dressed students who worked as the prize presenters for each awards ceremony, escorting the winners to the awards tent to collect their prizes and write thank you notes. Dr. Kellam and students traveling to South Africa this summer sold gourmet coffee, popcorn and baked goods which helped keep everyone warm and served as a pick me up when energy ran low. They also ran an auction of donated items to help raise money for their trip offering bargains and another fun activity to the weekend. (This blogger purchased a very nice leaf blower at a great price after a bidding contest with another bidder.) I suspect I am missing some jobs covered by students and once again I apologize for the unintentional omission.

Parents also play a huge role in these horse shows. First, we have to thank Holly Hayden for spending her weekend with us as head scorer, crunching scores from two judges to determine the winner. Lots of parents were in attendance to support their children. We love to have them with us. Carla said, “This weekend, I got to know some parents that I had not previously spent much time with, I loved that part of the show.” Mrs Schmieding mother of Ali Clynes, arrived early Sunday with breakfast biscuits for everyone and then set up an amazing lunch table with South Carolina barbeque for the entire St. Andrews crew to munch on.

Thank you to everyone who supported the Equestrian Program this weekend. The show was a great example of southern hospitality and team work and a huge congratulations to all the riders and coaches Wennberg and Agaliotis!

Zone Champions

St. Andrews University

Reserve Champions

Clemson University

Individual Nationals Qualifiers

Intermediate Horsemanship Finals

3^rd Erin Hudson

Beginning Horsemanship

2^nd Vicki Wiese

Open Horsemanship

1^st Michelle Hustad

Team Results

Team Reining

5^th Michelle Hustad (7^th in Individual Division)

Team Advanced Horsemanship

1st Mark Mowbray

Team Intermediate Horsemanship

2^nd Dugan McDermott

Team Beginner Horsemanship

2^nd Austin Trockenbrot

Team Novice Horsemanship

1^st Logan Teeter

Team Open Horsemanship

1^st Michelle Hustad

 

Western Semi Finals Day One

We have representatives from 29 schools competing at Western Semi Finals this weekend. As of this evening St. Andrews leads by 2 points ahead of Clemson with 50% of the team competition left to go so it is still a very open race for the 8 competing teams.

The team effort to put on an outstanding show is paying off. Jeremy, Matt and the stall cleaning crew started around 2:00 a.m. this morning to prepare the facility. The barn staff, team members, work study and students doing their work days for class began at 5:00 a.m. The draw for team reining with the legendary duck pond was at 7:30 to kick off the show at 8:00 a.m.

Other administrative/behind the scenes people that make this possible include Alum Mike Krysczak who is announcing both days. Multiple alums and friends of the program including Leah, Blake and Hillary worked hard all day long helping with horses, team clothes and overall show organization. Rob and Jameson serving as Ring Stewards, Heather and Audrey organizing the Pig Pickin’, Pebbles taking photos to post on facebook, Liz working the draw table, Matt running the paddock, Kellie G overseeing the barn staff and updating on twitter and myself posting results online and assisting with the draw table. It is very likely that I forgot several people who donated their time and energy to make the show successful and I apologize. Overseeing everything is Peggy who could be found organizing any and all areas of the show.

Tomorrow we get to do it all again to finish up individual classes and learn which of the 8 schools will advance to the National Championships. Top three teams and top four individuals move forward.

Competing Schools
Arcadia University
Ball State University
California State Polytechnic Pomona
Clarion University Verango
Delaware Valley College
Florida State University
Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Martin Community College
Arizona State University
California University of Pennsylvania
Cazenovia College
Clemson University
Georgia Southern University
Indiana University
Lander University
Mt. San Antonio College
North Carolina State University
Purdue University
Slippery Rock University
St. Andrews University
University of Central Florida
University of North Florida
West Virginia University
Pennsylvania State University Berks
Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College
State University of New York at Oswego
University of Arizona
University of Florida
Virginia Tech

IHSA Regionals

by Kirsten Farley

IHSA Regionals

3/22/2014

Hosted by St. Andrews

The official last show held at St. Andrews for the 2013-2014 season has come and gone. On Saturday, the St. Andrews Hunter Seat team hosted Regionals for Zone 4 Region 3. The riders who earned 1^st and 2^nd qualify to move on to Zone finals.

St. Andrews as a team has qualified to move on to Zones, with individual riders Kelsey Kocher, Cami Glaff, Julie Griffin, and Madison Edwards qualifying to move forward. Kelsey will also represent the Region at Nationals to compete for the Cacchione Cup.

Kelsey Kocher won both the Open flat and over fences and summarized her day saying, “Great beginning for my freshman year. There has to be a first for everything; a great way to start my competitive college career. Looking forward to the challenge that the Zone Finals will bring.”

Cami Glaff, a junior who qualified for Zones last year and again this year, said, “It is bitter sweet as my good friend Nikki Napoleone was third in the flat class and did not qualify for Zones.”

Madison Edwards and Julie Griffin who were both called back for Walk, Trot, Canter earned 1st and 2nd, qualifying both of them for Zones. Madison said after her ride, “Unbelievable!  I experienced some disappointments this year and decided to really work hard. I have been lucky with horse draws and have had incredible support from my friends. I also want to thank our coach Matt Arrigon and Program Director Peggy McElveen for everything they have done to make this experience possible.”

Julie Griffin stated, “I had beautiful rides today and that is thanks to the grueling practices Coach Arrigon puts us through. It also helps that I have a lot of prior show experience. My ride today was all about perfecting my position.”

At the end of the day Peggy McElveen and Matt Arrigon both commented on how the day unfolded and what was to come.

Peggy said, “The competition was very good today, even a small mistake that would not affect a ride at a regular show made a huge difference today.”

Matt, who is already gearing the girls up for Zone finals, put it this way, “We have work to do before Zones. Zones is tough. We are in a good place and the group works together well as a solid team. They want to do well and are competitive. A total of 9 or 10 students will travel to Zones as either individuals or team members or both. We will be competing against strong schools, Goucher, Mary Washington and Bridgewater with two teams advancing to the National Championships on May.”

Regina Barasch Regional Reserve Champion in the Cacchione Cup with Peggy McElveen

Kelsey Kocher Regional Champion in the Cacchione Cup with Peggy McElveen

St. Andrews Regional Champion Team!

Awards Convocation 2014

Friday evening the Faculty recognized students who excel in the classroom at the annual Awards Convocation. Sophomores were recognized for their academic achievements with many Equestrians included on the list. Each academic department bestowed special honors including awards, scholarships and induction into honor societies.Equestrians that were honored on Friday evening include;

St. Andrews Honor Society

Michelle Hustad

Katie Mosca

Claire Pollard

Willow Schuler-Goodman

Tau  Rho Rooney L. Coffman Award

Christine Harrelson

Holly Hickman

Beta, Beta, Beta

Alexandra Fullerton

Lauren Guenther

Taylor Hasenauer

Michelle Hustad

Katie Hutchings

Kelsey Jones

Sarah Jones

Psi Chi

Willow Schuler-Goodman

The Timothy J Olthoff Award for Art

Sierra Walker

The Flora Macdonald College Class of 1985 Scholarship for Music

Emily Wright-Thomasson

Pi Gamma Mu

Tara Algieri

Carey Andrews

Vanessa Bradley

Hallie Myers

Claire Pollard

Karen Zielonka

Equestrian Academic Leadership

Hunter Seat – Cami Glaff

Western – Katie Mosca

Dressage – Claire Pollard

TH – Meghan Nedow

Sigma Beta Delta

Cami Glaff

Hallie Myers

Claire Pollard

Abigail Skillman

Excellence in Equine Business Mgt.

Abigail Skillman

Excellence in TH Mgt.

Megan Nedow

Beginning Business Major with Outstanding Potential

Mary Thomsom

Junior Business Major Demonstrating Overall Excellence

Hallie Myers

Gravity Hill Editor’s Choice Award

Tara Algieri

Marie Gilbert Award for Poetry

Shiloh Kozlowski

Alpha Chi National Honor Society

Cami Glaff

Katie Mosca

Sarah Murvin

Willow Schuler-Goodman

Michelle Hustad

Hallie Myers

Rebeccah Yuswak