Edited Press Release
Savannah College of Art & Design fielded two Bees teams for the 34th Annual Holiday Tour nament of Champions, December 7 at Virginia Tech, because they are the defending Tournament Series Champs. What’s the best possible outcome? Champion and Reserve. To be fair, while SCAD Team Bee-Strong won comfortably with 41 points, Team Bee-Lieve had to take advantage of the tie-breaker to prevail over a very good Sacred Heart team who also scored 31. SCAD Bee-Strong didn’t have the dominant performance they have shown in the recent past, but got blue ribbons from predictable sources, with Celia Cram winning Open Fences, Alex Alston in Open Flat, and Peter Cavagnac winning both the Limit Flat and Fences to seal the deal.
Other than SCAD Bee-Strong, Sacred Heart was the only other team to place in every class, highlighted by a blue ribbon from Kylie Hwalek in the Section B of Open Fences. The Otterbein team, who had beaten SCAD at the first show of the Tournament series in September, finished 4th place with 28 points, getting a blue from Emma Herbruck in Intermediate Flat. Ten of the six teen competing teams earned a blue ribbon—one of the more competitive Tournament shows— but SCAD won five of the sixteen blues between the two teams. Mount Holyoke was the only oth er team with more than one blue ribbon.
Maybe the bigger story of the day was in the High Medal class, where SCAD’s Celia Cram won her seventh High Medal Championship, setting the all-time Tournament of Champions record for Medal Championships. She had previously held the High Medal record, but had been tied with former SCAD rider Brady Martino, who had won six Low Medals just prior to the COVID-cancelled season. Celia Cram is a senior, from Aiken, South Carolina, and is majoring in Equestrian Stud ies. Virginia Tech’s Amy Lewis took Reserve Champion in the High Medal, and Albion’s Phoebe Martin came in 3rd place. Sixteen riders began the competition, with eight advancing to the final round over fences. Full placings are shown below
Otterbein’s Corinne Hause won her first Low Medal, with Ani McIntyre of Skidmore in Reserve. Hause won the Limit Fences at the Preseason Classic in September, but this was her breakout performance in the Low Medal. McIntyre has been consistently in the ribbons in recent T of C Low Medals, with this being her high-water mark so far. The same could be said for Phoebe Martin in the High Medal. Full placings are shown below. Sixteen riders competed in Low Medal. Sadie Swift, a high school senior from Maryland, won the ETS Medal. The ETS Medal is a competition for high school riders who want to ride in college, in the same format as the High and Low collegiate Medals. Riders get a chance to work directly with college coaches for the day, and see what it is like to be part of a college team. Sadie was coached for the day by Lizzie Fisch of Sweet Briar. In Reserve in ETS Medal, was Katie Deaner from Pennsylvania, followed closely by Aine Carey from New York. Each of these riders has participated in numerous ETS events over the past couple years. Full placings are shown below. The ETS program is produced by Beckett Run Riding, the same company that runs the Tournament of Champions. Entries come from the ETS Boot Camp clinics that are hosted a dozen times around the country each season, mostly held at colleges like Mount Holyoke, Hollins, Goucher, DelVal, etc. This was the 20th season of ETS, minus an absent COVID year, and potential riders and parents can get more info by emailing: BeckettRunRiding@gmail.com.
SCAD takes a solid lead for the 2025 Tournament of Champions Series Championship, with two more shows still to go… SCAD will host the Winter Classic in January, and Univeristy of Findlay will host the Spring Classic in Ohio in March. Full standings appear be low.
2024 Holiday Tournament of Champions Team Totals:
- Champion: Savannah College of Art & Design – Team Bee-Strong – 41 Points
- Reserve Champ: SCAD – Team Bee-Lieve – 31 Points (Won Tiebreaker)
- 3rd: Sacred Heart University – 31 Points
- 4th: Otterbein University – 28 Points
- 5th: University of Lynchburg – 27
- 6th: Skidmore College – 24
- 7th: Mount Holyoke College – 22
- 8th: Sweet Briar College – 21
- Purdue University – 21
- Hollins University – 19
- Virginia Tech – 19
- Albion College – 17
- Delaware Valley University – 15
- University of the South – 14
- Penn State University – 11 Goucher College – 11
High Medal:
- Champion: Celia Cram, Savannah College of Art & Design
- Reserve Champion: Amy Lewis, Virginia Tech.
- 3rd: Phoebe Martin, Albion College
- 4th: Cora Floyd, Hollins University
- 5th: Emma Sameth, University of the South
- 6th: Kennedy Teasdale, Sacred Heart University
- 7th: Alex Alston, Savannah College of Art & Design
- 8th: Anna Huard, Albion College
Low Medal:
- Champion: Corinne Hause, Otterbein University
- Reserve Champion: Ani McIntyre, Skidmore College
- 3rd:L Claire Dillard, University of the South
- 4th: Fiona Barnett-Cross, Otterbein University
- 5th: Iris Schweiger, Savannah College of Art & Design
- 6th: Isabella Ruisi, Sacred Heart University
- 7th: Anna Szefc, Virginia Tech
- 8th: Willa Scrimgeour, Savannah College of Art & Design
ETS Medal:
- Champion: Sadie Swift, Lexington Park, Maryland
- Reserve Champion: Katie Deaner, Nazareth, Pennsylvania
- 3rd: Aine Carey, Carmel, New York
- 4th: Tiiu Nomm, Severna Park, Maryland
- 5th: Eleanor Beichner, Essex, Connecticut
- 6th: Presley Magnuson, Blountville, Tennessee.
- 7th: Zelly Main, Fairfax County, Virginia
- (the eighth ETS Medal finalist, Anna Grace Boteler, daughter of the Virginia Tech Coach Beth Sheeley, was called away for an emergency, and didn’t finish her final jumping round.)
Tournament of Champions Series Top Ten Standings:
- SCAD—40 Preseason, 41 Holiday = 40.5 avg.
- Otterbein—42 + 28 35.0
- Sacred Heart – 0, 31 31.0
- Mount Holyoke—39, 22 30.5
- Skidmore— 37, 24 30.5
- Sweet Briar – 0, 21 21.0
- Purdue – 0, 21 21.0
- Goucher – 30, 11 20.5
- Lynchburg – 18, 27 22.5
- Albion – 20, 17 18.5
Two more shows remain in the series. Award goes to the best two-show average, no matter how many shows they compete.
Click here for complete results in all classes. Thanks to our friend Steve Maxwell from campusequestrian.com for his constant advice and gracious assistance with Tournament of Champions!
