THREE CHAMPS, FOUR ADVANCE TO ZONES

Mar. 28: Junior Katherine Hankin bounced back from a Thursday night riding accident to win the regional

championship in Open Equitation on the Flat and was joined as regional champions by classmate Dorothy Douglas and sophomore Kristen Putnam in the Region II, Zone II Championships held at the Elsa Gunnison Appleton Riding

Brittan White (left) was third, Katherine Hankin was Reserve Champion and Dorothy Douglas was Champion in the 2007-08 Region II High Point Rider competition. (Wally Johnson photo)

Hall on Friday.

Hankin sustained minor, but painful, injuries in Thursday’s mishap, and while it impacted her performance in Open Equitation over Fences, she came back strong to win and advance to the Zone Championships on the flat. The top three riders in each event in Friday’s show will move on to the Zones to compete as individuals. St. Lawrence had previously qualified to ride in the team competition at Zone’s as the Region II High Point Champions and Douglas is the region’s high point rider and will ride in the Cacchione Cup competition for high point riders at Zones as well. The Zone competition will be held at Skidmore April 12.

Douglas won the Open Equitation over Fences competition and also qualified to compete on the flat at Zones with a third place finish in that event.

Putnam and junior Jessica Sweeney finished one-two in walk-trot-canter competition to advance to the Zone finals.

Other riders who competed for the Saints in Friday’s show included Brittan White, who just missed individual qualification with fourth place finishes in both open over fences and open on the flat, Taylor Clark in novice over fences, and Alyce Simons in intermediate on the flat.

The Saint team had the top three high point riders in the region for 2007-08 as Hankin finished second to Douglas in the season-long competition and White, a senior, was third.