The Fresno State equestrian team opens the season as the 9th-ranked
school in the country and will try to prove that national ranking in
its first contest against South Carolina on Sept. 23.
Tim Salazar / The Collegian
Coming off a year that ended with first-round losses to TCU in the Western Bracket and the University of Tennessee at Martin in the Hunter Seat Bracket at the Varsity Equestrian National Championships, the Fresno State equestrian team has a chip on its shoulder this season.
The squad finished last season as the 10th-ranked team in the country. Fresno State is the 9th-ranked team in this season’s preseason coaches poll.
The Bulldogs now begin their march to get back to the Varsity Equestrian National Championships this Friday when they travel cross country to South Carolina. Fresno State last competed against the Gamecocks in the 2010 Best in the West Tournament, edging the visitors 7-5.
Immediately following the trip to South Carolina, Fresno State will travel north to Delaware to take on Delaware State and Texas A&M on Saturday. The Aggies are the top-ranked team in the preseason coaches poll and took first place in the Valley Equestrian National Championships Western Bracket a season ago. In last season’s matchup, the Aggies beat the ‘Dogs 11-8.
The East Coast road series will be followed by the Willis Invitational at the end of the month, which consists of Miami of Ohio, Baylor and South Dakota State in competition with Fresno State. Baylor is the fifth-ranked team in the country in the preseason coaches poll after its third-place finish in last year’s Hunter Seat Bracket.
The ‘Dogs won’t compete at home in their first meet until Oct. 8 against New Mexico State. The final home meet of the first half of the season will be against Stanford on Oct. 29. Co-head coach Julia Scrivani recognizes the daunting schedule her team faces, but also sees how this season can be special.
“I’m really excited for this upcoming season. We’ve got a strong team and I hope they can show their strength,” Scrivani, who primary works with the English squad, said.
The team is broken up into two separate divisions: English Hunter Seat and Western. The two squads compete in two different competitions with the winning riders of each receiving a point for the entire team.
The Western riders compete in horsemanship and reigning. The English Hunter Seat team competes in equitation on the flats and equitation on fences. The team captains are senior Sammie Jo Stone for horsemanship, senior Shawna McClurg for reigning, junior Lauren Carr for equitation on flats and senior Holly Elsbernd for equitation on fences.
Joining the quartet of leaders are some new additions to the stable with the ‘Dogs welcoming in 11 new riders for this season. Some of the notable additions are English rider Belle Calkins, horsemanship rider Lauren Crivelli and reiner Mercedes Antonini.
Calkins is a Kansas State transfer riding for the Wildcats for one season. The California native was the captain of her high school equestrian team. Crivelli is a transfer from San Luis Obispo and has already qualified for the 2011 American Quarter Horse Youth Association World Show in horsemanship and other events. Antonini was the 2005 Year End Nor Cal Grand Champion for 17 and under youth.
Co-head coach Stephanie Reeves, who coaches both the western reining unit and western horsemanship team can’t wait to see the entire squad in action.
“I think we probably have the most depth we’ve ever had on the western side, which makes me very excited to see how they perform both here and on the road,” Reeves said.
The team recently completed an intra-squad scrimmage with the Blue team winning 12-9 over Red team. Reeves gave her assessment of the Bulldogs’ first live-action competition.
“I’m won’t say they surprised me because I expected them to perform and they did just that,” said Reeves.
