The Aggies came in defending an overall National championship, and four straight Western championships. Their Western team jumped out to a quick 3-1 lead against Fresno State and never lost it. Although the high score of the match belonged to Fresno's Lauren Crivelli, a 148.5 in Horsemanship, she was the only bulldog able to score a point (having won Fresno State's only point in reining as well). With a 2-1 win in Horsemanship Texas A&M secured the 5-2 victory, and a date with Georgia in the quarterfinals Friday. In their Hunter Seat matchup the Aggies followed a similar path. After winning 3-1 in Equitation over Fences they held onto a 2-2 tie in Equitation on the Flat and secured a 5-3 victory. The Texas A&M Hunter Seat team will face South Carolina in the quarterfinals.
The biggest upset of the day belonged to the South Dakota State Hunter Seat Team. The bottom seeded Jackrabbits, Led by Megan Violand and Santana Wright, who each won in Equitation over Fences and On the Flat (and together accounted for ALL of the Jackrabbits points) managed a 4-4 tie and won on the raw score advantage 1,107-1,022.
“It’s exciting and rewarding. We worked so hard for this all year for this and it’s very well-deserved,” said SDSU hunt seat coach Kamerra Brown to www.gojacks.com. “We can’t just be happy with this win though, we need to stay focused." On Friday the will face Auburn, which will be no small task, but perhaps the bigger quarterfinal challenge for the Jackrabbits will be the number two seed Kansas State that awaits their Western team. After reining SDSU was tied with UT Martin, but a 3-1 win in Horsemanship ensured a 5-3 victory.
Other Western winners on Thursday were Auburn (5-3 over Baylor) who will face Oklahoma State on Firday, and South Carolina (5-3 over New Mexico State) who will face TCU.
Other Hunter Seat winners on Thursday were UT Martin (1122 to 1012 raw score tiebreaker over Kansas State) who will face Baylor, and SMU (6-2 over New Mexico State) who will face Georgia.
Georgia was the only team that earned a bye in both the Hunter Seat and Western brackets.
Overall National Championship Picture
After one day, there are five schools with both Western and Hunter Seat teams in contention. Basically, that means that there are five schools left with a shot at the overall NCEA National Championship. The defending champions Aggies stll have a chance, as do the "cinderella" of the tournament SDSU, the Auburn Tigers, the Georgia Bulldogs, and the South Carolina Gamecocks.
A live stream of the NCEA National Championship is available on the NCEA website.
Live scoring is available online at www.baylorbears.com.