April 19, 2006
WACO, Texas - Baylor's equestrian team will travel to Albuquerque, N.M., this afternoon to participate in this year's Varsity National Championships hosted by New Mexico State. The show is being held at the EXPO New Mexico/State Fair Grounds April 20-22. This year is the second-straight for New Mexico State to serve as host for the event.
The Varsity Championships is an invitation-only tournament whose participants are decided upon by the Selection Committee. Baylor is attending the championships for the first time in its inaugural season and is the only first-year program to be invited to the championships this year.
Along with the Bears, Auburn, Fresno State, Georgia, Kansas State, New Mexico State, Oklahoma State, South Carolina, Texas A&M and West Texas A&M were all invited to ride in both English and Western events. Sacred Heart and SMU are the 11th and 12th schools to ride in the English bracket.
Baylor will be taking 10 riders from its roster to compete this weekend. For the English events, Cara Wilson, Susie Foster, Nicole Brown, and Shelby White will be participating. For the Western events, Brenna Burris, Amanda Esco, Ashleigh Brown, Kendra Kemp, Nicole McCoy, and Kim Crook are traveling to ride.
In the English bracket, the Bears are seeded 10th in the 12-team bracket. Baylor's first competition will be against seventh-seed Sacred Heart. Tomorrow's meeting will be the first time the two programs have competed against each other. The winner in the first round will compete against second-seeded South Carolina, last year's English and overall winner. Baylor competed earlier this year against the Gamecocks in a head-to-head show where South Carolina narrowly defeated the Bears 1274-1244.5.
In the Western division, Baylor enters the show as the ninth seed in the 10-team bracket. Tomorrow the Bears will ride against seventh-seeded Auburn. The two programs faced off in a February head-to-head show in Alabama where the Tigers posted a 1187-1139 win over the Bears. The winner of the first round's match up will be slated to compete against second-seeded New Mexico State.
Last year South Carolina claimed the English bracket title while Texas A&M earned the Western bracket title. The overall National Champion program was South Carolina with 60 points. Georgia was the reserve program with 51 points.
The tournament is scheduled to begin Thursday morning and run through Saturday. Results for Baylor will be available at www.baylorbears.com while full tournament scores will be posted at www.nmstatesports.com.
Varsity National Championships
Thursday, April 20
Baylor's Schedule
English
(7) Sacred Heart vs. (10) Baylor - Winner will ride against (2) South Carolina in the afternoon.
Western
(7) Auburn vs. (9) Baylor - Winner will ride against (2) New Mexico State in the afternoon.
