Auburn Equestrian looked to stay in form early in the season as they traveled to Texas to take on both Texas A&M and SMU this weekend, splitting the two weekend matches, 1-1.
No. 3 Auburn first took on Texas A&M in College Station, tying the match 10-10 on event wins. However, the No. 4 Aggies took the win based on overall score 1451.75-1439.50.
Auburn went a perfect 5-0 in horsemanship, sweeping the event and earning an early lead. Brooke Jolstad earned Most Outstanding Performer honors in the horsemanship section, taking a 75-73 win over Aggies’ rider Meagan Braun. Auburn took two more points in flat and was up 7-3 at the halfway point.
A&M came storming back in the second half. The Aggies won three-of-five in fences despite Tigers’ Avery Glynn winning her match and improving to 4-0 on the season in the fences section. Texas A&M then took four-of-five in reigning, bringing them all the way back and giving Auburn their first loss on the season.
After the loss set them to 1-1, No. 3 Auburn took the short drive up to Dallas to take on 7th ranked SMU. This match also came down to a raw score tiebreaker after the event score ended 10-10 once again, but this time it went the way of the Tigers, 1675.75-1675.38.
Once again, the Tigers performed well in the first half, taking a 6-4 lead through fences and horsemanship. Glynn once again showed her prowess in fences play, improving to 5-0 on the season and earning Most Outstanding Performer honors for her 88-84 win.
Unfortunately for Auburn, the Tigers were once again unable to hold their lead as SMU took three-of-five in flat and reigning to tie the match back up and send it to the tiebreaker. Despite the SMU comeback, Ariana Marnell turned in a stellar performance, earning Most Outstanding Performer honors for flat.
After a quick check of the raw score for both sides, Auburn was able to edge out a victory in the Lone Star State, going 1-1 over the weekend against top-ranked opponents and improving their own record to 2-1 on the season.
No. 3 Auburn Equestrian won't have to wait long for their next action, as the Tigers are back in Texas to face TCU in Fort Worth this Friday, Halloween, Oct. 31. The Tigers will try to advance to 3-1 against a strong Horned Frogs team. First jump is at 10 a.m. CDT Friday morning.
