2021 Saint Mary of the Woods College graduate Kathryn Kraft (third from right, in orange shirt) entered four classes and won three of them, including the Western Alumni Cup. The soon-to-be new head coach of Purdue University's hunter seat team won two western and one english class at the Alumni Tournament of Champions in Gladstone, New Jersey June 4th and 5th.

KRAFT WINS THREE TIMES, KURTZ WINS TOP HUNTER SEAT PRIZE AT 2022 ALUMNI TOURNAMENT

Gladstone, NJ - Save for when the hunter seat and western events were held in separate locations 2022 marked the first time that the Alumni Tournament of Champions took place over two days. Western went first, with seven classes on Saturday (June 4th). Eight hunter seat classes were held the next day.

After two days of showing thirteen riders claimed at least one blue ribbon. 2021 Saint Mary of the Woods graduate Kathryn Kraft was the only rider to win more than one class. Kraft won the Western Alumni Cup, the top western prize at the Tournament prior to additional blue ribbon efforts in advanced reining and advanced flat. Kraft won with guidance from Saint Mary of the Woods head coach Tabatha Taylor, who was on hand for both days of the tourney. In 2022-23 Kraft will take over for the retiring Jerry Steinmetz as head coach of the Purdue University hunter seat team, which will mean former coach Taylor and Kraft will both be vying for the hunter seat Region Title in Zone 7, Region 1.

Kraft was part of a large group of riders who came from the Midwest to the USET Headquarters for the weekend. In addition to Kraft winners from west of Pennsylvania were Michaela Carnevale of Adrian College (in alumni horsemanship), Maddie Turner of Oakland University (in reunion flat) and Logan Mayhew of Bethany College, the last one having graduated from a school located in West Virginia but within a region made up mostly of schools located in Western Pennsylvania. Mayhew won the alumni flat, which was the final class to compete over the two-day window. This writer can confirm that Turner was riding in an Alumni Tournament for the first time.

Another rider who was making his alumni tournament debut is first-year University of Lynchburg head coach Phillip Williamson. The former Centenary University rider won the Reunion Fences, which according to ATOC co-founder Lena Andrews Licata was again the first class to fill up when on-line registration went live. Williamson was one of 27 riders entered in the class and one of four tested by former Dartmouth College head coach Sally Batton (Batton also briefly coached Centenary College in the late 1980's, prior to Williiamson's birth). Batton, who retired after 29 seasons at Dartmouth in mid-2019, was judging an IHSA-related event for the first time.

For the second year in a row an active IHSA Western Coach judged the ATOC Western classes. Steve Shank, the head coach of the Alfred University western team, made the decisions the first day. Among the winners Shank picked out are former Westfield State University rider Tammy Cranouski, who today is the IHSA's Alumni Director, and Andrea LaManque, a former Morrisville State College rider who has been instrumental in organizing and running many of the alumni Western events held prior to and during the pandemic. Cranouski won the ranch riding class and just missed out on multiple blue ribbons when Shilpa Despande (formerly of the University of Delaware) kicked off the weekend with a win in advanced horsemanship and Kraft won the alumni cup (Cranouski was second in each). LaManque won the Alumni Reining class which was slightly ironic since her region (Zone 2, Region 3) rarely ever holds alumni reining classes during regular IHSA shows.

University of Findlay graduate (and first-year Franklin and Marshall College coach) Erika Kurtz poses with her husband Tom Kurtz and "Marley" after she won the 2022 hunter seat Alumni Cup. By the luck of the draw Kurtz rode Marley three times (though none of the rides were over fences) at the ATOC. And who is Marley's provider? None other than Erika herself!

Other hunter seat alumni who left Gladstone with the top prizes included Sara Hearn, who led a large Mount Holyoke College class of 2022 contingent in the Future Alumni Cup. Hearn took a gap year during the pandemic and was perhaps the only rider to compete as an undergraduate at both 2018 and 2022 IHSA Nationals. Former Washington College rider Kristie Nissen won the first class on Sunday the 5th (prevailing in 2'6" fences) while Erika Kurtz was the last winner of the weekend to hear her name announced. Kurtz became the eleventh rider ever to win the hunter seat Alumni Cup, the top prize of the event for an English rider. Kurtz, who was Erika Bender as an undergraduate at the University of Findlay at the turn of the century, managed to draw her own horse Marley on three occasions that day.

According to Andrews Licata the USET Headquarters in Gladstone will again host the Alumni Tournament in 2023. Since the first Alumni TOC event in 2012 (at the recently shuttered Valley Forge Military Academy and College) all but three of the hunter seat events will have been held in New Jersey and five of the ten western events will have also been held in the garden state. 2023 will mark the tenth anniversary of the Western ATOC so expect special pomp and circumstance for the occasion.

--Steve Maxwell

The Class-By-Class Results, listed in the order in which they were placed. The hunter seat judge was Sally Batton. The western judge was Steve Shank.

Advanced Horsemanship: 1. Shilpa Deshpande, University of Delaware. 2. Tammy Cranouski, Westfield State University. 3. James Hobbie, University of Delaware. 4. Joanne Coniglio, Delaware Valley University. 5. Rylee Burke, Adrian College. 6. Eleanor Harowicz, Moravian College. 7. Taylor Day, Ohio State University.

Western Future Alumni Cup (combined reining and rail phases): 1. Hannah Brown, Mount Holyoke College. 2. Sierra Dunn, Mount Holyoke College. 3. Sara Hearn, Mount Holyoke College. 4. Katherine Bacolas, University of Connecticut.

Alumni Horsemanship: 1. Michaela Carnevale, Adrian College. 2. Lindsay Langan, Delaware Valley University. 3. Allie Domenico, Delaware Valley University. 4. Rachel Harze, Kutztown University. 5. Dylan Pal, University of Kentucky. 6. Constance Long, Cazenovia College.

Western Alumni Cup (combined reining and rail phases): 1. Kathryn Kraft, St. Mary of the Woods College. 2. Tammy Cranouski, Westfield State University. 3. Rylee Burke, Adrian College. 4. Eleanor Harowicz, Moravian College. 5. Joanne Coniglio, Delaware Valley University. 6. James Hobbie, University of Delaware.

Advanced Reining: 1. Kathryn Kraft, St. Mary of the Woods College. 2. Taylor Day, Ohio State University. 3. Tammy Cranouski, Westfield State University. 4. Rylee Burke, Adrian College. 5. Joanne Coniglio, Delaware Valley University. 6. James Hobbie, University of Delaware.

Alumni Reining: 1. Andrea LaManque, Morrisville State College. 2. Christa Bramberger, State University of New York at Cobleskill. 3. Lee Levine, State University of New York at Cobleskill. 4. Allie Domenico, Delaware Valley University. 5. Bernadette Smith, Washington College. 6. Rachel Harze, Kutztown University.

Ranch Riding: 1. Tammy Cranouski, Westfield State University. 2. Eleanor Harowicz, Moravian College. 3. Jess Benner, Kutztown University. 4. Lindsay Langan, Delaware Valley University. 5. Michaela Carnevale, Adrian College. 6. Bernadette Smith, Washington College.

2'6" Fences. 1. Kristie Nissen, Washington College. 2. Aylen Ferguson, University of Ottawa. 3. Allyson Villareale, Delaware Valley University. 4. Logan Mayhew, Bethany College. 5. Kelsi McGlone, University of Scranton. 6. Stacy Klein, Dartmouth College.

Reunion Fences. 1. Phillip Williamson, Centenary University. 2. Megan Mendenhall, Wilson College. 3. Jane DaCosta, St. Johns University. 4. Jenna Stafford, Wayne State University. 5. Jessica Holly, Lehigh University. 6. Amanda Horn, Stonehill College. 7. Maureen Michelson, University of California at Santa Cruz. 8. Christina Antonucci, University of Lynchburg.

University of Pennsylvania graduate Jennifer Platt (on right) competed in her first IHSA-related show since the 1980's. Kutztown University graduate Maria McCloskey (on left) convinced Platt to give the Alumni Tournament a try. While Platt was out of the ribbons McCloskey was eighth in the hunter seat alumni cup class for the second year in a row. Later in the show McCloskey was third in advanced flat, her best ribbon to date in an Alumni Tournament class.

Alumni Cup (combined flat and fences phases): 1. Erika Kurtz, University of Findlay. 2. Jessie Ann Green, Hofstra University/Illinois State University. 3. Justine Perrotti, Lafayette College. 4. Eleanor Harowicz, Moravian College. 4. Emily Cornell, Delaware Valley University. 5. Jocelyn Badgley, Faifield University. 6. Lauren Kamerer, Hartwick College. 7. Emily Cornell, Delaware Valley University. 8. Maria McCloskey, Kutztown University.

Future Alumni Cup (combined flat and fences phases): 1. Sara Hearn, Mount Holyoke College. 2. Sierra Dunn, Mount Holyoke College. 3. Katherine Amirault, Virginia Tech. 4. Katherine Munn, State University of New York at Geneseo. 5. Caitlin Geary, University of Vermont. 6. Mary Caruso, University of Vermont. 7. Ester Vergel, University of Maryland. 8. Chloe Koval, University of Vermont.

2'3" Fences. 1. Juliana Marie Cipressi, Clarion University. 2. Shauna Stanley, West Chester University. 3. Anneke LaPosta, University of Vermont. 4. Bernadette Smith, Washington College. 5. Maya Brody, Mount Holyoke College. 6. Emma Recchi, Mount Holyoke College. 6. Kari Searls, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Advanced Flat: 1. Kathryn Kraft, St. Mary of the Woods College. 2. Aylen Ferguson, University of Ottawa. 3. Maria McCloskey, Kutztown University. 4. Hannah Messineo, University of Ottawa. 5. Rachel Heist, Delaware Valley University. 6. Catherine Hensly, Hollins University.

Reunion Flat: 1. Maddie Turner, Oakland University. 2. Christina Antonucci, University of Lynchburg. 3. Adeline Callihan, Goucher College. 4. Megan Mendenhall, Wilson College. 5. Phillip Williamson, Centenary University. 6. Shauna Stanley, West Chester University. 7. Hallie Brooke, Dartmouth College. 8. Erin Hankins, Cazenovia College. 9. Maureen Michelson, University of California at Santa Cruz. 10. Jen Conway, Gettysburg College. 11. Jenna Stafford, Wayne State University. 12. Caitlin Wright, Stonehill University.

Alumni Flat: 1. Logan Mayhew, Bethany College. 2. Annalisa Ferrotta, Binghamton University. 3. Jessica Bower Relevo, Cal Poly - Pomona. 4. James Hobbie, University of Delaware. 5. Emma Recchi, Mount Holyoke College. 6. Juliana Marie Cipressi, Clarion University.