NMSU Equestrian Team Qualifies for Nationals, Prepares for Invitational Tournament

Date: March 9, 1999
Editor: D'Lyn Ford, (505) 646-6528, dlford@nmsu.edu

LAS CRUCES - New Mexico State University's national champion Western Equitation Team will defend its honor during the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association (IHSA) Tournament of Champions March 13.

The show will be held on campus at the NMSU Equestrian Center on Sam Steel Way beginning at 9 a.m. with warm up of horses at 8:30. Plans and conceptual drawings for the proposed covered equestrian arena and equine teaching facility will be on display.

At Saturday's event, the top two teams in each IHSA region will compete in reining and Western equitation classes. Three teams from NMSU will compete against 19 others in the tournament, including rival Oklahoma State University, coached by former NMSU coach Larry Sanchez.

"We are really excited to have this opportunity to compete against these teams and get a preview of national competition," said Debbie Jones, Western team coach.

NMSU's five-person Western Equitation Team is first in the region after beating out Colorado State University for first place Feb. 27-28 at CSU. They will defend their 1998 national team title at the national competition April 23-25 in Cazenovia, N.Y.

In addition to qualifying as a team, individual riders also can qualify to advance to national competition. The top three riders in each event at the regional show qualified to compete in the zone competition March 27-28 at CSU. The top three placings at the zone competition will continue on to nationals.

Qualifying riders are: Melanie Curry, Michelle Maccarrone, Stephanie Hefley, Wendy Kiess, Kari Dickerson and Jeb Stuart.

Stuart was named the region's American Quarter Horse Association high-point, stock-seat rider. At nationals, he will compete in the AQHA open horsemanship class, which involves showing a horse on the rail and in reining pattern.

In English competition Feb. 27-28, NMSU placed second behind CSU. Four NMSU riders qualified individually for zone competition: Jessica Ackerman, Kiess, Maureen McCamley and Sam Marusich.