Texas A&M
Kansas State
Texas A&M Equestrian Defeats K-State in Tiebreaker
Nov 06, 2009 | Equestrian
Nov. 6, 2009
MANHATTAN, Kan.--The Texas A&M equestrian team had to go to a second tiebreaker for the first time in school history on Friday, but it was enough to lift the third-ranked Aggies to their fourth consecutive win over No. 7 Kansas State at Fox Creek Farm.
With the overall score tied 9-9 upon completion of all rides, judges went to the first tiebreaker--which sees each team drop one hunter seat ride and one western ride, then combine raw scores. After that also resulted in a tie, the second tiebreaker was invoked--which combines all raw scores. A&M held a 62.5-point edge there, 1423-1360.5, and thus earned the overall victory. It was the Aggies' second win in a row and first away from home in '09.
"Coming down to raw scores was nail-biting, but it all worked out in our favor," head coach Tana McKay said. "It's always a tight match between us and K-State, and we are very excited to pick up what is a huge win on the road."
The fences squad had a near sweep of points on its rides to lead the hunter seat team to a 5-4 victory. Freshman Kori Pickett picked up her second straight win, and first career MVP, with an 81-76 defeat of KSU's Jen Rawle. Lia Chafee, Maggie Earle and Lindsay Smith also scored points for A&M in the fences discipline.
"The fences team had a very strong showing today," hunter seat coach Linzy Woolf said. "They had their game faces on and had the polish needed to get the job done. I feel like they carried over the momentum from the Baylor show last week and it paid off."
On the flat, redshirt freshman Brittney Dodson matching her opponent's score of 65.
"Even though we took the loss, I felt the flat team had a strong showing today," Woolf said. "They rode very correct patterns. This was good preparation going into tomorrow's show at OSU."
The defending national champion western team saw its 14-show win streak come to an end with a tough 5-4 setback to the Wildcats. The Aggie horsemanship riders fell, 4-1, with senior Caroline Gunn extending her win streak to 12 shows thanks to a 75.5-73.5 victory over Caley Coffey.
In the reining discipline, Maggie Gratny matched her opponent's 70.5 score.
"Our reiners had a lot of very good rides again," McKay said. "We rode just like we had planned. A couple of our riders had never shown at K-State before in their careers, but they remained very focused and rode really smart. I'm proud of their effort."
A&M wraps up its road trip on Saturday with a trip to Stillwater to face fourth-ranked Oklahoma State. The show begins at 10 a.m. at the Animal Science Arena on the OSU campus.
"We'll look at some of the rides we had today on the trip down to Stillwater and work on focusing and preparing for what's going to be a tough challenge," McKay said. "We'll have seven riders competing in each class, which is one of the largest competitions we've had, and we'll also be putting some young riders out there to see what they can do. I'm looking forward to it. It should be a great and exciting competition."
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