Edited Press Release
Westerville, Ohio – September 21, 2024 – Sixteen of the nation’s top collegiate equestrian teams started the year with an absolute barnburner of a Tournament of Champions Preseason Classic show, maybe the most competitive in the 34 years of Tournament. Hosted by Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio, in the northeast suburbs of Columbus, Preseason Classic is the first of four Tournament events this season. This was the fifth time Otterbein has hosted the Tournament of Champions.
Otterbein was celebrating their college Homecoming Weekend, with part of the festivities be ing an Equestrian Gala celebrating fifteen years in their beautiful Austin Knowlton Equine Center. By the end of the day, Otterbein fans had even more reason to celebrate. After Lynch burg’s Lucy Metzler started the day with a blue ribbon in Open Fences, Otterbein’s Emma Linton won the second section of Open Fences to tie for the lead after the first of eight divisions. That’s the closest anyone came to the Otterbein Cardinals, in a wire-to-wire nail-biter that ended with a 42-point day and Otterbein’s first ever Team Championship in Tournament of Champions. Ot terbein got four blue ribbons and two reds, dominating the Open and Limit divisions, with wins from Linton, then Abigail Roberts in Open Flat, followed by Corinne House in Limit Fences and Ella Payne in Limit Flat.
SCAD, last year’s Tournament Series Champs, had an uncharacteristically slow start, already down nearly double digits at midday. SCAD got second-half blue ribbons from Peter Cavagnac in Limit Fences but were still struggling till Kameron Riggs won Intro, then Lexie Stoebenau won Novice – two blues in the final two classes of the day to rally SCAD to Reserve Champion team with 40 points.
All in all, Mount Holyoke and Skidmore were the two most consistent teams, the only teams with points in every class. Mount Holyoke flirted with the lead several times, especially early in the day after Cate Bates had won both Intermediate Fences and Open Flat. At the midday break, Otterbein’s 24 points led Mount Holyoke’s 23, and Holyoke held on later in the day with consistent ribbons, to finish 3rd Place with 39 points.
Skidmore atypically struggled over fences with only 10 jumping points – compared to Otterbein’s 19, Mount Holyoke’s 15, and both Lynchburg and Goucher had 14 – but Skidmore dominated on the flat with 27 points, including blue ribbons from Isa Jensen in Intermediate Flat, then Stella Allen in Novice and Alice Wrede in Intro, for a total of 37.
The Goucher Gophers had a pretty good 30-point day, Lynchburg’s Red Team man aged 25 points, and Albion is showing great progress with a 20-point day that landed them the 7th Place ribbon. No fewer than four teams tied with 18 points for the 8th Place ribbon, before Penn State Blue Team won the tiebreaker over Lynchburg Black, Ohio University, and Penn State White – that’s right, Penn State actually tied with Penn State.
In an absolutely historic Medal day, SCAD’s Celia Cram broke her own prior record in winning her 6th Tournament High Medal Championship. While she is in a class by herself in High Medal, her 6th Medal tied the all-time Tournament Medal leader, Brady Martino, who won 6 Low Medals for SCAD from 2018 to 2020. Celia Cram beat Kenya Sanders, who had won the final High Medal of last season, competing for Skidmore.
Penn State’s Emma Walter won the Low Medal, following in the footsteps of her older sister, Sara Walter, who had won the Low Medal at the 2021 Holiday Tournament, riding for Penn State, and this was the first time that siblings have won either Tournament Medal in all the years.
Abigail Evans of Chagrin Falls, Ohio won the ETS Medal, for high school students. She was working with Phillip Williamson, the Lynchburg Coach. ETS Medal riders have a chance to compete for great prizes at Tournament of Champions events, but more importantly they have the opportunity to be seen and recruited by many of the top programs, and to be coached for the day by one of the Tournament college coaches. There will be additional opportunities to compete in ETS Medal at three more Tournament events this season – Virginia Tech in December, SCAD in January, and Findlay in March.
Heather Campbell of Cincinnati judged the Preseason Classic. She had also judged the 2024 NCEA Nationals. Tournament of Champions will continue the 2024-25 Series on December 7 at Virginia Tech University, then at SCAD in January and Findlay in March.
For full class results, click here.
