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| Zones 2011: Stanford riders with coaches Vanessa Bartsch and Jim Hagman |
Eleven Stanford riders will travel to Lexington, KY in May to represent the Stanford Equestrian Team at 2011 IHSA National Championships. To advance from the regular season into post-season, riders had to either qualify as individuals or compete as part of the team competition.
Junior Logan Hehn was the first of the Stanford contingent to qualify for Nationals. Competing as an individual in Intermediate Western Horsemanship, Logan had to finish in the Top Two at Regionals to advance to Semi-Finals, and then had to finish in the Top Two at competitive Semi-Finals to advance to Nationals. A Reserve Championship finish at Regional Championships earned him a berth at the Western Semi-Finals in Ohio, where he upped the ante to finish ahead of all other qualifiers, taking home the title of Zone Champion in Intermediate Western Horsemanship.
This weekend, Stanford hunt seat riders traveled to Pomona, CA for Zone 8 Championships. Because the Stanford's English team finished the regular season as Regional Champions, they fielded a full team along with individual qualifiers at Zone Championships. At the end of two days of competition at the Fairplex, Stanford was named the 2011 Zone 8 Champion Team, besting runner-up University of Colorado with 45 points cumulatively. With the team win, all of Stanford's team riders advance to Nationals: Emily Cohodes (4th in Open Fences), Nicoletta Heidegger (1st in Open Flat), Alison Smith (3rd in Intermediate Fences), Rachel Kolb (1st in Intermediate Flat), Morgan Abbett (2nd in Novice Fences), Alyssa Baldocchi (1st in Novice Flat), Sarah Jacobson (2nd in W/T/C), and Elise DeBuysser (1st in W/T).
Stanford sent four individual riders to Zones. Emily Cohodes finished 7th in Open Fences and Sabrina Wilson was 5th in Novice Flat. Joining Logan and the team riders at the Kentucky Horse Park will be Sasha Najera and Jaslyn Law. The two finished in the Top Two in their classes to advance. Sasha's Zone Reserve Championship in W/T/C and Jaslyn's Zone Championship in Novice Flat earned both a spot at Nationals.
Final Hunter Seat Team Totals, with the top two teams advancing to IHSA Nationals: Stanford University 45; University of Colorado at Boulder 35; University of Southern California 33; Oregon State University 30, University of Montana 25. (Full results available at http://campusequestrian.com/story/2011zone8zones.html)
