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ZONE 10 JUMPING NEWS
Team Day at NAJYRC

Friday (August 4) was team day at the North American Junior & Young Riders' Championships and this is one of the two most exciting days at this competition. All the teams and their supporters congregate in different parts of the stadium seats in the covered ring at the Virginia Horse Center (Lexington, VA). Teams display banners, flags and signs, and cheer wildly for their riders. In our highly individualistic sport, it is fun to have the team competition and see the camaraderie that develops.

The Junior teams took the stage first and competed over a technical 1.40 meter course designed by Linda Allen. Seven teams were vying for medals, and Zone 10 showed that they were contenders. Paris Sellon led the way with a clear round, and then her team mates Aurora Griffin and Erica Buie both posted fault free rounds. Hannah Selleck, riding in the high pressure anchor position, had just four faults and that served as the team’s drop score. They went into the second round with a narrow lead over Zone 2/5 (4 penalties) with Zone 4 in third (eight penalties).

In the second round fortunes changed. Zone 2 put the pressure on by posting three clear rounds, which the Zone 10 team couldn’t quite muster. Griffin and Buie both posted eight faults. Sellon’s clear round meant that one of the eight fault scores could be dropped, but it all depended on anchor rider, Hannah Selleck. The Canadian team had improved their performances and were sitting in third. Zone 10 had only a slight margin for error. Selleck kept her cool and posted an accurate, fault-free performance on Bauer. They finished in second and will stand on the silver medalist position on the podium during Sunday’s award ceremony.

“It is a tremendous opportunity to have our Junior and Young Rider teams come here.

The Young Rider team competition proved to be very competitive with strong teams from Zone 1, Zone 2, Zone 10 and Mexico. The courses were set from 1.40 to 1.50 meters, however many riders handled the difficulty quite well. Zone 10 was represented by Paige Beal-Andros, Karl Cook, Kelly Connor, and Katherine Bardis.

Zone 1 set the pace, not only by going first in the team rotations, but also by posting one clear round after another. Zone 2 posted three clear rounds, and the Mexico-North team dropped one of their four fault scores to finish with a four fault penalty behind Zones 1 and 2.

Paige Beal-Andros started off the Zone 10 team by jumping a clear round with just one time fault. Karl Cook had an unfortunate stop, but he quickly spun NZ Madison around and finished with just 13 penalties. Kelly Connor revived Zone 10 hopes with a clear round. Unfortunately Katherine Bardis also had a little trouble and posted nine penalties. The team finished the first round with a total of ten penalties and were sitting fifth, just behind Zone 3 with eight faults.

Going into the second round, the Zone 10 team needed to really fight to get into medal position and the other teams were not going to readily give ground. Zone 2 has dominated this competition for the past few years, and the Zone 1 riders could taste victory. They fought on and Zone 1 posted three more clear rounds. Zone 2 was in a precarious position. Their first rider, Hillary Dobbs had four faults in the second round. Mexico-North posted a clear round. By the time the teams reached the final rotation, it all came down to the anchor riders. Mexico-North had acquired eight faults from their second rider. If their anchor went clear, Mexico-North would only have a total of four penalties. Zone 2 was oscillating between vying for gold and jumping off for silver. If their anchor was clear it would be a jump off with Zone 1 for gold. If their anchor had four or more faults, they would be tied with Mexico-North for silver...and a jump off. .

The crowd went silent and held their cumulative breath when Javier Berganza (Mexico-North) entered the ring..

could challenge them for the gold, and two four fault scores ensured a Zone 1 victory. However, that left Zone 2 and Mexico-North very close. Mexico-North carried four penalties from the first round. Zone 2 added four penalties to their zero. It all came down to the anchor riders of the two teams.

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