March 25, 2006

NACOGDOCHES, Texas – In their first competition in a month, South Carolina’s hunt seat team defeated Stephen F. Austin 548-511 to guide the Gamecocks to an overall team victory of 1086-1063. The narrow win gives USC a 5-2 record on the year. The Western team fell 552-538. Both teams have 5-3 records individually.

“It has been a long day and we are not used to that,” said head coach Boo Duncan. “I am very pleased with our performance but we had some mental errors out there still. We rode well in western but small errors hurt us.”

In equitation on the flat, USC received wins out of Sarah Lowe and Kelley Campbell. Over fences, Kristen Terebesi and Ellen Hogate defeated their opponents. Terebesi was the high scorer of the meet as she defeated Alex Berry, 91-88.

“The English team rode very well. This was our first meet in a month so we were a little rusty but we still had good performances,” said Duncan. “This was the first time for us to see these horses and sometimes it is hard to figure them out in such a short time but we did pretty well.”

In horsemanship, Katie Grossnickle defeated Jamie Melgares 82-78, and Katy Biffle beat Monika Brindley 76-71. In reining, Rebekah Roof edged out Brindley 72-71 for the Gamecocks’ lone win.

“This was a good competition for us. We still need to be a little sharper but we know what we need to improve on going into our competition against South Dakota State next week and then into the championships in April.”