There aren’t adequate adjectives to describe the way the Savannah College of Art & Design has man-handled college equestrian competition the past several years, especially in Tournament of Champions. At Holiday Tournament in December they scored a 54, just a red ribbon away from a perfect score and setting the high-score record for 28 years of Tournament. They had won 6 straight Tournaments, and Brady Martino had won his 5th Tournament Medal class. What could they do to follow that up?
Fast forward a month to January 25, where SCAD was hosting the Tournament Winter Classic at their home arena, the Ronald Warranch Equestrian Center in Hardeeville, South Carolina. Sixteen outstanding college teams competed – mostly 1st place teams in their own regions, and SCAD fielded two teams as the host. Everyone knew they were in for a challenge taking on SCAD on their own horses, although a morning rainbow shown brightly over the barn for someone.
At the end of the day, SCAD had scored 50 and won their 7th straight Tournament and Brady Martino had won his 6th Tournament Low Medal. Even more impressive was that the SCAD second team scored 49 to win Reserve Champion. SCAD won 12 of the 16 blue ribbons of the day. The non-SCAD highlight of the day was Mount Holyoke’s Sarah Hearn winning her first Tournament High Medal, with Adam Edgar of SCAD in Reserve. Goucher’s Cole Jackson placed Reserve Champion behind Martino in the Tournament Low Medal.
With nearly all the blue ribbons going on the SCAD banner, nobody really mounted a challenge, with the SCAD Bee-Strong team winning the first four classes in a row and the Bee-Power team winning three blues and a red in their first half. Everyone else was scrambling for a 3rd place finish. Mount Holyoke looked to be the only team scoring consistently in the red ribbons and taking a solid 3rd place track, but University of Massachusetts, the 2nd place team from Holyoke’s regional made a late surge to finish in 3rd place over Mount Holyoke’s 4th.
Goucher, Otterbein, Boston U, and Bridgewater all had characteristically strong shows to fill out the top 8 team ribbons. Penn State was one point out of the team ribbons, and the surprise up-and-comer award goes to Illinois State University, who consistently scored points in all but one class to finish solidly in the middle of a very strong field of teams. Bridgewater was the only team other than SCAD to win ribbons every class.
Dacia Johnson of Tallahassee, Florida was judging Tournament for the third time. Weather was unusually cool for Savannah, with a high of about 50 and windy. The show was under the covered ring.
SCAD now sits solidly atop the season standings for Tournament Series Champion, with one show remaining, March 14 at University of Findlay in Ohio. Full results and photos will be found on following pages. For more information on Tournament of Champions series, contact Tournament Director Jim Arrigon at jimarrigon@hotmail.com
Tournament of Champions – Winter Classic – Savannah College of Art and Design – Saturday, January 25 – Hardeeville, SC
Team Results:
Champion – SCAD – Team Bee-Power – 50 pts.
Reserve Champion – SCAD – Team Bee-Strong – 49
3 – University of Massachusetts – Amherst, MA – 32
4 – Mt. Holyoke College – Team Paws – South Hadley MA – 30
5 – Goucher College – Baltimore, MD – 25
6 – Otterbein University – Westerville, OH – 23
7 – Boston University – Boston, MA – 21 (won tie breaker)
8 – Bridgewater College – Bridgewater, VA – 21
Illinois State University – Normal, IL – 17
Mt. Holyoke College – Team Lyons – 17
Penn State University – State College, PA – 20
University of Connecticut – Storrs, CT – 15
University of South Carolina – Columbia, SC – 15
University of Rhode Island – Kingston, RI – 11
Rutgers University – New Brunswick, NJ – 7
Tournament of Champions – Low Medal Results:
1 – Brady Martino – SCAD
2 – Cole Jackson – Goucher College
3 – Hattie Bradford – SCAD
4 – Angela Egger – Boston University
5 – Adelyn Callahan – Goucher College
6 – Sophia Priller – Otterbein University
7 – Megan Ray – Otterbein University
8 – Sarah Etzel – Mt. Holyoke College
9 – Jenny Searles – Bridgewater College
10 – Marina McDonald – Mt. Holyoke College
Tournament of Champions – High Medal Results:
1 – Sarah Hearn – Mt. Holyoke College
2 – Adam Edgar – SCAD
3 – Madelyn Keck – SCAD
4 – Emma Brown – Rutgers University
5 – Danielle Duryea – Otterbein University
6 – Gabriella Fournier – Penn State University
7 – Franny Eremeeva – Mt. Holyoke College
8 – Clara Bechtold – University of Connecticut
9 – Indra Rapinchuk-Souccar – Mt. Holyoke College
10 – Emily Kowit – Otterbein University
Tournament of Champions Series Standings (Top 15)
Team 1st score 2nd score Average
Savannah College of Art & Design 54 50 52
Mount Holyoke College 35 36 35.5
Goucher College 27 29 28
UMASS 24 32 28
Delaware Valley 26 – 26
Bridgewater College 29 21 25
Roger Williams 25 – 25
Penn State 28 20 24
Sacred Heart 29 18 23.5
Miami of Ohio 22 25 23.5
Boston U 18 21 19.5
Marist 18 – 18
Lake Erie 18 – 18
UCONN 20 15 17.5
South Carolina 15 – 15
Otterbein 6 23 14.5
