No. 3 EQ Falls in NCEA Quarterfinals

Thursday, April 18

Waco, Texas

8:30 a.m. CT

Baylor

Georgia (Team)

No. 3 EQ Falls in NCEA Quarterfinals

4/18/2019 7:32:00 PM | Equestrian

Complete Results

Baylor drops 10-6 decision to sixth-seeded Georgia Thursday

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            Two months ago, Baylor's fences and reining riders provided the difference in an 11-8 victory over Georgia at the Willis Family Equestrian Center.
            In a different venue, with much more on the line, sixth-seeded Georgia (7-7) rallied from a 5-3 deficit to win seven of the eight rides in those same disciplines and defeat the third-seeded Bears, 10-6, in Thursday's quarterfinals of the NCEA National Championships at the Extraco Events Center.
            "Everything's up for grabs at nationals. This is just a different platform," said Baylor coach Casie Maxwell, whose team fell to 9-5. "It's the same stuff we do every weekend, just a lot more pressure. You need all your events to be just as deep, and we were really good on the flat and horsemanship today, but we didn't pull through in the fences and reining.
            "There was some unfortunate stuff, and there was some stuff where there was definitely error on our part, so you just can't have those kinds of things at the championship."
            It was a tough ending for a team that won a Big 12 title this season and moved up to No. 3 in the country after a 5-9 finish in Maxwell's debut season. But, the Bears are still alive in three of the four individual events competition, with quarterfinals and semifinals slated for Friday.
            "It's disappointing," said senior Abi Demel, who scored 222.5 in her horsemanship ride to help the Bears claim three of the four points in that discipline. "Like coach said, we're still moving on. That's something to look forward to. You can be disappointed, but there's stuff you can't control. As long as we control the controllables (Friday) and get to Saturday, I wouldn't say it's disappointing."
            The biggest disappointment on Thursday was the top-seeded reining riders getting shut out, 4-0. That proved to be the difference in the rematch with the Bulldogs.
            Baylor appeared to be in good position at the midway point, getting winning rides from Demel, Katie Davis (218.0) and Kaylee Mellott (224.0) in horsemanship and splitting in equitation on the flat with points from Rachael Davis (222.0) and Madison Day (218.0).
            That 5-2 lead quickly disappeared, though, with Georgia winning all but one of the second-half rides. Day got the Bears' only point in fences, scoring 242.0 on Java.
            Because of the difference in the raw scores, Baylor likely needed to win three of the four points in reining and came up empty. All four of the riders scored below 200.0 in a new format that uses the middle three scores of five judges, tossing out the highest and lowest marks.
            "Some unfortunate stuff happened with our horses. We asked for some re-rides and didn't get them," Maxwell said. "There's nothing we can do to control that situation, and then we made some poor choices, too. It definitely wasn't a reflection of how we preformed all year, what we've done to get ranked No. 1 here in the event segment. But, you're not good every day, and we weren't good today. It's just unfortunate that fell at the championship."
            Baylor will try to regroup for Friday's quarterfinals. The top-seeded reining riders will face eighth-seeded South Carolina at 8:30 a.m., with the semifinals to follow at 12:30 p.m.
            In flat, the Bears are seeded second and will face seventh-seeded South Carolina at 1:30 p.m.  The sixth-seeded horsemanship riders got through the first round with a 3-1 win over South Dakota State and will face third-seeded Oklahoma State at 3 p.m. Friday.
            Georgia defeated second-seeded Texas A&M, 8-7, in the semifinals and will face defending champion and top-seeded Auburn in Saturday's team championship at 8:30 a.m., with the four event finals slated for that afternoon and the awards presentation at 5 p.m.
            "We really just have to regroup and get ready for (Friday)," Demel said. "I don't think it will be any problem. No one's down in their confidence. We know what we did today and how to fix it. We've been doing good all season, so I think it will be a quick fix."

THE RUNDOWN
WACO, Texas – No. 3 seeded Baylor equestrian (9-5) fell 10-6 to No. 6 Georgia in the NCEA National Championship team quarterfinals Thursday afternoon at the Extraco Events Center.

The day started out with flat and horsemanship, where the Bears rallied to a 2-2 tie and a 3-1 victory over the Bulldogs, respectively.

In the flat, Rachael Davis (220 on Otis) and Madison Day (218 on Ollie) put BU on the scoreboard, while Abbi Demel (222.5 on Jake), Katie Davis (218 on Phoebe) and Kaylee Mellott (224 on Hannah) each secured points in horsemanship. Mellott claimed the overall high score of the discipline.

In the second half of the competition, the Bears struggled to maintain a narrow lead, eventually falling 3-1 in fences and 4-0 in reining, bringing the overall score to 10-6. Madison Day pocketed the lone point of the second half for the Bears with a 242 in fences while BU's top-seeded reining squad was held scoreless.

Fans can keep up with Baylor's equestrian team on Twitter (@BaylorEQ), Facebook (Baylor Equestrian), and Instagram (@BaylorEquestrian).

TOURNAMENT INFO
2019 NCEA National Championship
Extraco Events Center
Waco, Texas, April 17-20, 2019

Friday, April 19
Reining Bracket: Baylor vs. South Carolina (Quarterfinals) – 8:30 a.m. CT
Flat Bracket: Baylor vs. South Carolina (Quarterfinals) – 1:30 p.m. CT
Horsemanship Bracket: Baylor vs. Oklahoma State (Quarterfinals) – 3 p.m. CT

NOTABLES
• Baylor horsemanship posted a 3-1 win over Georgia.
• Baylor finished its season in the NCEA quarterfinals for the fourth consecutive season.
• Baylor is now 0-2 against Georgia at the NCEA Championship.
• Kaylee Mellott posted an overall high score of 224 in horsemanship.
• In fences, Madison Day posted a team-best score of 242 on Java.
• Baylor finished 7-5 against ranked opponents this season.
• Baylor finished 1-2 in neutral site meets this season.
• Baylor finished 42-18 in equitation on the flat points this season.
• Baylor finished 35-21 in horsemanship points this season.
• Baylor finished 30-27 in reining points this season.
• Baylor finished 24-34 in equitation over fences points this season.

STAT OF THE MEET
3 – the team point total by Baylor horsemanship.

TOP QUOTE
Head coach Casie Maxwell
On the loss…
"Everything's up for grabs at nationals. This is a different platform. It's a lot of mental – you're riding different horses. It's the same stuff we're doing every weekend, but it's a lot more pressure. We need all four events to be just as deep. We were really good on flat and horsemanship today, but we didn't pull through in fences and reining. In order to win half your points, you need to be deep in all areas. So, there was some unfortunate stuff and other stuff that were errors on our part. You just can't have those types of things at the championship."

WHAT'S NEXT
In event competition, sixth-seeded horsemanship meets No. 3 seed Oklahoma State in the quarterfinals Friday at 3 p.m.

BU's top-seeded reining squad will take on No. 8 South Carolina on Friday at 8:35 a.m. in the quarterfinals following the Gamecock's 4-0 victory in the discipline over No. 9 TCU in the first round.

Then, the Bears' second-seeded equitation on the flat team will have their shot against the No. 7 USC flat team. The Gamecocks closed out the first round with a 3-1 win over Fresno State.