This past weekend, the Lafayette equestrian team placed second at the show hosted by Moravian, losing to the first-place team, Bloomsburg, by only two points. The Leopards’ strong performance follows their first-place finish at the University of Scranton last weekend.
In a dominant performance, Junior Grace McEneaney placed first in open fences, second in the flat and won high point rider individually.
“Something that I’m excited for and hoping for is that we continue to present as a strong team and continue placing well,” McEneaney said. “For me, personally, I feel like I’ve gotten pretty lucky this year. My luck wasn’t the best last year, but I’m just hoping for consistency for myself and for the team.”
Junior Zubair Ali was likewise impressed with the team.
“I think the team did, overall, really well with support and being there for each other,” Ali said. “One of our new members, [Freshman Daly Gibson] showed for her first time. Everyone was really supportive and really cheering her on.”
In the Introductory category, Sophomore Shreya Suresh pointed out to move up into Pre-Novice, and Ali won in the category.
“[Suresh] was able to get enough points to move up to the next division, which was really exciting for her,” McEneaney said.
Ali has to gain just 12 more points before pointing out of the Introductory category, so these next two shows are crucial to his potential placement in the regional competition.
“I am really looking forward to pointing out, having that satisfaction,” he said.
McEneaney explained that something she values is that the team is respectful of each other’s pre-game rituals or the way different members handle mistakes.
“Everyone has their own process of how they want to get ready and how they want to focus,” she said. “If someone doesn’t have the best stride, sometimes they will just brush it off and like hop back in and help out the team. Other times they need a second to just like go for a walk or compose themselves just to get over it so they can be positive again for the team.”
As vice president, part of McEneaney’s responsibility includes organizing team bonding activities.
“During the week, one of the nights we had a PowerPoint night. We just met and everyone made fun PowerPoints about the horses or about the team in general,” McEneaney said. “It was just a fun, easy thing to do as a team to get to know each other a little bit more.”
Ali said that winning regionals last year really boosted the team’s confidence, but the team has its eyes on the zone competition once again this year.
“I am really looking forward to going to zones,” he said. “I’m just going to manifest that we’re gonna win regionals.”
The team has a doubleheader weekend coming up next weekend, with the show on Oct. 15 hosted by Rutgers and the show on Oct. 16 hosted by Bloomsburg.
