Bucknell freshman Andrea Brown was one of only two riders with two first place ribbons at the October 9th Moravian College/Princeton University show.

BUCKNELL TAKES SECOND STRAIGHT

Readington, NJ - The Bucknell bison remained undefeated in 2004-05, prevailing by a 35-34 margin over reserve team Lehigh. Andrea Brown, a freshman from Hackettstown, New Jersey won both of her novice classes while Leslie Tucker (novice fences), Jennifer Wenick (novice flat), Amy Sutter (same), Lindsay Burns (advanced walk-trot-canter) and Rachael Schuster (same) won one class each. The bison won even though no one placed first in any of the divisions above novice and in spite of not earning a blue ribbon until the 12th class of the day when Brown won over novice fences.

However one Bucknell rider who had two reserve ribbons was senior Becky Worden. Some may recall that Worden led the Region 4 Cacchione race parts of Fall 2001 as a freshman before Princeton's Kelly Wells eventually locked up high point open rider honors at the final show that year. Worden then opted not to compete IHSA for the better part of two seasons, but has returned with a bang. The Laguna Niguel, California resident has 21 points through two shows, enough for a tie atop the top spot in the Region with Rutgers freshman Alicia Morgan.

Reserve high point team Lehigh has a fairly successful open rider of their own. Jill Douglass, who placed second at 2004 IHSA Nationals in the Cacchione Cup Competition, won both of her open classes today. When combined with two fourth place ribbons won during the season opener Douglass is now at 20 points, one behind Worden and Morgan. Teammate Rebecca Resnick won her open flat class, while Dana Grimley won a section of novice fences. Lauren Talemal, who had won three walk-trot classes for the mountain hawks in fall of 2003 made her first IHSA appearance since and placed fourth, classing her up into walk-trot-canter. Though Lafayette was awarded reserve high point team honors following the first show, it later turned out that an adjustment from one of the classes gave Lehigh an additional point, which means the mountain hawks have been reserve two shows in a row.

Lafayette followed up their 27 point opening day effort with 22 today. Open rider Erin Githens now has more blue ribbons this season than all of last, having placed first in open fences for the second week in a row. Githens is tied with Douglass for second place in the open rider standings.

Defending Region 4 champions Kutztown were impressive with 31 points. Chrystal Coffelt (open flat), Erica Bechtel (intermediate flat), Megan Lissi (novice flat) and Jillian Ebling (walk-trot) all won blue ribbons for the golden bears. Head Coach Bruce Lachiusa said after the show that he was pleased with the Kutztown effort.

Princeton University won four blue ribbons and ended up fourth place with 27 points. Had the tigers pointed Hillary Frankel in intermediate fences they might have tied Lehigh for second. With Region 4 not posting their point sheets, no one knows who is pointed. However Frankel is a co-captain, and as a result does usually know who Princeton points. Frankel seldom points herself, and didn't do it again this week. Apparently with the pressure off, Frankel is great over the fences, having now won both of her jumping efforts this season. Cate Adams, a freshman from Nashville won her second IHSA class (intermediate flat) while two other frosh won their first time out. Ali Sutherland-Brown (from Ottawa, Ontario) won her walk-trot while Lyndsay Jacob from nearby New Hope, Pennsylvania won her beginner walk-trot-canter class.

Other riders with blue ribbons on this day were Amy Doherty (intermediate fences) and Annie Martzen (novice flat) of Scranton; Ashley Garrett (intermediate flat) and Dan DeRicco (novice fences, his IHSA debut) of Moravian College, and Elizabeth Hardison (advanced walk-trot-canter) and Alicia Morgan of Rutgers, the latter winning a blue ribbon in the first open fences section of the day. It turns out that Morgan spent a large portion of her youth riding western ("I did a lot of Barrells," says Morgan) but is now riding strictly hunter seat. Her total of a blue, two reds and a yellow is equal to Worden and first place in the open rider standings thus far.

Church Bellos were ringing: Open rider Erica Bello, who led the Region 4 open rider standings after one show, remains only three off the lead with 18 points overall. Bello was one of many who had difficulty with the fences in the second of three sections of open jumping. Though she earned a sixth with a refusal, Bello was her usual self on the flat, placing second. Bello may have had good reason to be the slightest bit distracted. Her brother was scheduled to be married at 1:00PM and Bello's flat class ended at 20 to eleven!

There were no debates before this one, honest: When the show started Lachiusa was Region 4 Region President but during the Coaches and Captains meeting Lehigh Head Coach Marisa Kalmar was elected the new Region President. When asked when Kalmar takes office, Lachiusa said "Right Now. This very moment." Lachiusa had recently expressed interest in stepping down while Kalmar had expressed interest in taking the position, so the changing of the guard was not totally unexpected.

Supply and demand: Moravian College put together today's program, which they sold for $5.00, putting them in a tie with Nassau Community College in Region 1 for the most expensive non-IHSA Nationals Program this writer has ever seen. On very rare occasions the cost is $4.00. East Stroudsburg charged only $2.00 the week before. Nassau County arbitrarily charged $5.00 in 2001 on that one occasion and has since lowered their price. The Moravian Program itself contained the usual rosters and classes, but nothing else that would distinguish it from any other IHSA program. The parent of a Rutgers rider was not too happy that the programs were all gone within 30 minutes of the show's start. He was told that only ten or so were on sale to begin with. The moral of the story? None really, other than printing at least 30 programs and charging $3.00 a pop will make more people happy.

It must seem like Nationals all over again: Alumni rider Ashton Phillips has a slew of red ribbons won at IHSA Nationals, and continues his quest for a blue ribbon this season. However on this day Phillips was reserve in both alumni divisions. University of Connecticut alumni Chrissy Seelaus won the blue ribbon in each of Phillips' classes. With the alumni split into two sections, 2003 Scranton graduate Sabrina King also earned a blue over fences while 2003 Rutgers graduate Katie Graebener took top honors in alumni flat. 1989 Virginia Intermont graduate Phillips leads on the flat, though 2004 Lehigh graduate Lena Andrews still holds a one point lead over fences.

The Ride-off: Douglass and Brown were the only riders with two firsts, and thus rode off for high point at the end of the day. Judge Wendy Chapot, who was a TV analyst on Comcast's coverage of the Devon Horse Show a few months ago, picked Douglass as the winner. Though she was reserve, Brown is off to a very good start, having placed first three times and second once so far in her IHSA career.

--Steve Maxwell

Show Incidentals: Overcast, then sunny, with temperatures rising to the low '70's. Start time: 8:38AM. Finish: 3:41PM - includes 47 minute lunch break/Coaches & Captains meeting. Point cards posted in this region? No. Alumni classes held in this Region? Yes. Judge: Wendy Chapot. Stewards: Lamont-Francfort/Rutgers University, Lachiusa/Kutztown University and Clark/Lafayette College.

Team Totals: Bucknell University (High Point Team) 35; Lehigh University (Reserve) 34; Kutztown University 31; Princeton University 27; Lafayette College 22; Rutgers University 18; Moravian College 16; East Stroudsburg University 16; Susquehanna University 15; Bloomsburg University 15; University of Scranton 14; Cedar Crest College 6 and De Sales University 2.

High Point Rider - Jill Douglass, Lehigh University
Reserve High Point Rider - Andrea Brown, Bucknell University