EQ Opens NCEA National Championship Run

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            Casie Maxwell was ready to be patient, knowing that rebuilding a team that went 5-9 last year could take three or four years "to get the dynamic we wanted and get the team on board."
            It happened much faster than the Baylor equestrian coach could have ever hoped or imagined.
            "One thing that's helped us get there really quickly is the majority of our team is really young," said Maxwell, who has 40 freshmen and sophomores on a roster of 63 riders. "The majority of our roster is underclassmen who really don't know any different. . . . I tell people, they're a little naïve in their talent and ability. But, that's a good thing. It keeps them hungry and keeps them driving."
            From Maxwell's rough debut season that ended with a 12-3 loss to eventual national champion Auburn in the NCEA National Championship quarterfinals, Baylor has turned it around to go 9-4 and win the program's fourth Big 12 championship.
            Seeded third overall, the Bears will face sixth-seeded Georgia (5-7) at 8:30 a.m. Thursday in the NCEA National Championship quarterfinals at the Extraco Events Center.
            The four-day meet kicks off with the opening round of the separate event disciplines – equitation over fences, equitation on the flat, horsemanship and reining. Baylor is seeded 11^thin fences and will face sixth-seeded Oklahoma State at 8:30 a.m., with the Bears seeded sixth in horsemanship and squaring off against 11^th-seeded South Dakota State at 2:30 p.m.
            Earning first-round byes in the other two disciplines, Baylor is seeded first in reining and second in flat and won't compete until the quarterfinals on Friday.
            "It's definitely a lot of work, but I personally enjoy it," said senior Western rider Abbi Demel. "I think it puts a little bit less pressure when it comes to the team event, because the teams that don't get a bye get to get your feet wet and get the nerves out. It's just nice to get in the arena and feel things out and shake the nerves off before you go out to perform for your team."
            While the team championship is still the "cherry on top," Maxwell said the individual events give the teams a chance to "come here and play more than once."
            "It's definitely hard on the horses and hard on our athletes," she said. "But sometimes, you do have that event that's incredibly strong and why not let them go ahead and vie for a national championship when they've worked so hard. The team championship is ultimately what you're vying for and you want to do this together and you want to do this with all four events and your entire team being able to come through on the right day and get you to the end. That's definitely the most important piece."
            After going winless at last year's Big 12 Championship, the Bears flipped the script this year by beating TCU, 11-8, in the first round and then winning the title with a tiebreaker edge over Oklahoma State after a 10-10 tie.
            "To win it on the road is incredibly hard, and to do it up there at Oklahoma State is a huge feat," Maxwell said. "I'm really proud of them. Our message to them is that's not going to carry us to the national championship. It's a great confidence booster, but now we've got to kind of forget about it and move on, because this one's definitely up for grabs here."
            Demel said she's actually encouraged that the Bears "didn't even perform the best that we have this year" in winning the Big 12 title.
            "That's kind of exciting," she said. "As a team, we've talked about it, like what we can improve on and how it still wasn't our best performance and we did so well and how we could work on that in the two weeks between and then hopefully show that here at nationals."
            Baylor claimed three of the four Big 12 Rider of the Year awards with juniors Madison Day and Grace Thiel honored for fences and flat, respectively, and sophomore Syndey Scheckel being named Reining Rider of the Year. Also earning All-Big 12 honors were Day, Caroline Weaver and Rachael Davis in flat.
            Maxwell said the NCEA National Championships are "probably the most exciting platform (fans) can see for collegiate equestrian." Horse shows in the "real world" are "typically really quiet, really boring, really low-ley," she said.
            "When you get here, you see the teams rallying and cheering, and that's not the norm for the sport, if you will," Maxwell said. "You get the hype you have in college athletics, and you see the teams rallying for one another. You see some incredibly talented animals that our student-athletes get to ride. So, it's definitely fun."
            The meet continues through Saturday, with championship finals in the team competition and all four individual events. Award presentations are scheduled for 5 p.m. in the Show Pavilion.

WACO, Texas – Hosting at the Extraco Events Center in partnership with the City of Waco and McLennan County for the 13th-straight season, the Baylor equestrian squad is set to take part in the 2019 NCEA Championship, running Wednesday through Saturday.

The tournament format takes place over four days, with the team bracket featuring the nation's top eight teams in competition for recognition as the NCEA National Champion.

There are also four event-specific brackets (fences, flat, horsemanship, reining), featuring up to 16 teams competing for one of four titles as NCEA Event National Champions.

The highest combined point totals in the events competitions by discipline (hunter seat, western) will be awarded recognition as one of two NCEA Discipline National Champions.

BU will kick off its tournament run in the events brackets on Wednesday with the opening round in two events.

Baylor leads off with fences as the No. 11 seed, facing No. 6 Oklahoma State, and in horsemanship as the No. 6 seed vs. No. 11 South Dakota State. Fences is set for an 8:30 a.m. start while horsemanship will begin at 2:30 p.m.

Baylor (9-4) enters the team competition as the No. 3 overall seed, paired with No. 6 Georgia to open play on Thursday at 8:30 a.m. A win over the Bulldogs would land the Bears into the semifinal round, taking place later that afternoon at approximately 4 p.m.

The quarterfinals and semifinals of the event brackets will take place on Friday starting at 8:30 a.m.

The top-seeded BU reining team will take on the South Carolina/TCU winner at 8:30 a.m. before the No. 2 Baylor flat squad takes on the South Carolina/Fresno State winner at 1:30 p.m. to close the third day of competition.

The three days of competition leads into the Canadian Pacific NCEA Championship Saturday, with the team and all four event championship finals concluding on Saturday.

The team title matchup kicks off at 8:30 a.m. with the event titles later that afternoon in the order of fences and horsemanship at 2 p.m., followed by reining and flat at 3:30 p.m.

Admission to all days is free to the public. Fans who can't make it to Waco for the NCEA Championship can follow online at the tournament central page, which includes results, live scoring, and live-stream links: www.baylorbears.com/ncea. EQSportsNet will live stream the championship.

Baylor fans can follow the official Twitter and Facebook accounts @BaylorEQ, and the Instagram account @BaylorEquestrian for updates.

EQ Opens NCEA National Championship Run

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Players Mentioned

Rachael Davis

Madison Day

Abbi Demel

Grace Thiel

Caroline Weaver

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