Equestrian shines in show

By Nathan Hathaway

The Fresno State equestrian team was near perfect heading into Saturday’s English and Western Show at the Animal Science Pavilion.

The English riding team had won every competition of the season. The Western riders had lost only one competition this season.

The Bulldogs didn’t do anything Saturday to hurt their streak, as they rode away with both the English and Western team titles.

The English title was the Bulldogs’ eighth straight regional English championship, and the Western title was Fresno State’s fifth in the past six years. The English team finished with 41 points in Saturday’s competition, beating second-place UC-Davis by a convincing 20 points.

There was a three-way tie for the individual English championship. Dawn McIntosh, Amanda Hancock and Leyla Mundy, all from Fresno State, tied for the title.

All six events in the English classes went to Fresno State riders.

Michelle Tonello won in open fences, Hancock took first in intermediate fences and Mundy won in novice fences. McIntosh won in open flat, Rachel DeCamp won in intermediate flat and Katie Flanigan was the winner in novice flat.

Fresno State coach Chuck Smallwood said that Macintosh and Tonello both “stepped up” and that each “really showed her stuff.”

Fresno State also won six events in the Western classes. Christy Webb took the overall individual Western championship.

Beth Knapp won in open rail, Lindsey Cox won in advanced rail and Andi Crisp took first in novice rail. Kayla Merritt won in intermediate Western horsemanship 2 and Sierra Daniels took intermediate Western horsemanship 1. And Webb won in reining.

Smallwood said Merritt, who rode English for most of last year but recently began riding Western for Fresno State, was the day’s “outstanding rider.”

“ She’s stepping up to the plate and changing over and doing well,” Smallwood said.

In other action, Jackie Alewyn won in beginning walk-trot-canter and Stacey McCalmont took first place in walk-trot.

Overall, Fresno State won 14 of the show’s 16 events. The only events not won by a Fresno State rider were advanced walk-trot-canter and Western class’ walk-jog.

“ All team members gave a huge effort with everything they did today,” Smallwood said. “We had an absolutely wonderful day as a team, and I think their hard work this semester really showed in this performance.

“ I think in their riding today, they took it to the next level.”