July 5, 2013

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COLUMBIA, S.C. – University of South Carolina equestrian coach Boo Major released on Friday the schedule for the upcoming 2013-2014 season, which marks the 18th season of varsity equestrian at Carolina. The reining Southeastern Conference champs will compete in a 13-meet regular season slate that features six meets against SEC opponents.

The 2013-2014 season also marks the second season of SEC equestrian, and the University of South Carolina and the Town of Blythewood will host this year’s SEC Championships (Mar. 28-29).

“This is a schedule that I think is going to challenge us because of the quality of the opponents we’ll be facing,” Major said. “Our conference schedule is certainly going to be tough as it is every year, but we also have a strong non-conference schedule that will test us on both sides of our lineup. If you look at how everyone finished at nationals last year, we’ll have five meets against teams that made it to the finals.”

The first of those five meets will take place on Fri., Sept. 20 when the Gamecocks host Kansas State in the season opener. The Wildcats finished second in last year’s Western bracket.

South Carolina will compete eight times during the fall, and five times during the spring. The fall portion of the schedule features four road meets and one neutral site meet. The Gamecocks’ first road trip of the season will take place Oct 4-5, when Carolina travels to Dover, Del. The Gamecocks will compete against Delaware State on Fri., Oct. 4, and will then face Southern Methodist the following day in neutral site competition.

Carolina will make its second ever trip to Brookings, S.D. to face South Dakota State on Nov. 23. The Gamecocks last traveled to South Dakota State during the 2005-2006 season.

Six of South Carolina’s regular season meets will take place against SEC opponents Auburn, Georgia, and Texas &M. The Gamecocks will compete twice against each SEC opponent – once during the fall and once during the spring as part of a home-and-home series. In the fall, the Gamecocks will host Georgia (Oct. 11) at One Wood Farm, and will travel to face to Texas A&M (Oct. 25) and Auburn (Nov. 9). In the spring, the Gamecocks will travel to Georgia (Feb. 8), and will host Texas A&M (Feb. 22) and Auburn (Mar. 1) in the regular season home finale.

After the meet against Auburn on Mar. 1, the Gamecocks will travel to face to UT-Martin (Mar. 8) in the regular season finale.

Following the SEC Championships, the Gamecocks will travel to Waco, Texas for the National Collegiate Equestrian Assocation’s (NCEA) National Championships. Last season, the Gamecocks advanced to the semifinals in both the hunt seat and western brackets.

Admission to all Gamecock equestrian meets is free. Live online scoring will be available for all home meets, along with selected away meets here on GamecocksOnline.