Saints, Skidmore Tie for National Championship
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by:
Becky WalshCoaches Mary Drueding and Cate Wagner and IHSA founder Bob Cacchione with Alyssa Bokor
May 4: St. Lawrence University's riding team has its second straight Intercollegiate Horse Show Association national team championship, but this one it has to share with Zone 2 counterpart Skidmore College.
The Saints went into Saturday's final two events in the team competition with a seven point lead on Skidmore, but the Thoroughbreds tied it when Flavia D'Urso won the open equitation over fences competition for seven points and the Saints finished out of the scoring. It came down to the open equitation on the flat to decide the title, but the Saints Emily D'Alessandro finished seventh, one position out of scoring and Skidmore's rider was eighth to leave the teams deadlocked for the national title with 22 points each.
The Saints and Skidmore finished one-two last year and tied for second with 22 points each in 2011. The only other tie in IHSA history came in 1989 when Colby-Sawyer and Penn State tied for the championship. Coincidentally, Saint coach Mary Drueding was the coach of the 1989 Colby-Sawyer team.
The 2013 title is the seventh for the Saint program and the second back-to-back wins in program history, following the 1976 and 1977 teams.