Equestrian tops No. 9 Oklahoma State, 10-8, in home opener

[PonyPride]

From SMUMustangs.com:

DALLAS (SMU) – Trailing 7-6 with equitation on the flat left, the No. 6 SMU equestrian team won four-of-five remaining points, to beat No. 9 Oklahoma State, 10-8, in comeback fashion Saturday at the Dallas Equestrian Center. SMU improves to 2-0, while OSU falls to 1-1.

After OSU won the first point, sophomore Nora Gray started the comeback push with a MOP-winning, 79-75, victory over Carly Barrick. Haley Zimmerman used an 80-75 win to knot the competition at eights, before Vivian Yowan rolled over Maggie Drysch, 72-63, to give the Mustangs a 9-8 lead. With the final point up for grabs, senior Sylvia de Toledo clinched the victory for SMU with an easy, 75-62, win over Kayla Lott.

"I am really proud of our flat riders today," SMU head coach Carol Gwin said. "They were under a lot of pressure, stepped up and clinched the meet. Coach Megan Southam has worked really hard with these girls on the flat, so it is great to see the hard work pay off."

"This was a huge win for us today, Gwin added. "It was nice to see the girls did not give up, but fought harder in the second half, which has been a big focus for us so far this year."

Earlier in the day, SMU won equation over fences, 3-2. de Toledo scored the first point for the Mustangs, using an 88-74 rout over Barrick, to earn the MOP honor. Gray won the second point with a 77-76 edge, before Alexis Graves used a 71-69 win to claim the discipline for SMU.

SMU claimed horsemanship, 2-1, with Hannah McCain and Michaela Dinger leading the way. McCain used a 73.5-70.5 victory to win the horsemanship MOP, before Dinger scored the discipline's high score to beat Libby Collins, 74-71.5.

"OSU has a fantastic horsemanship squad, so for our girls to compete so well with them today, displayed the great coaching from coach Trista Adkins, and fan support at our new home facility."

The day started in reining, where Keagan Snively used a 66-63 victory over Julia Purus to score SMU's lone point.

The Mustangs return to action, Sat., Oct. 29, as they head to Waco, Texas, to square off against Baylor.