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| Mounted Games Across America |
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Mid-Atlantic Games Individuals Results
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MGAA held its first Individuals competition at Jefferson County Fairgrounds, Ranson, West Virginia on the weekend of November 20/21. This competition was only open to MGAA members who had competed in at least one of the MGAA Mid Atlantic series competitions held over the spring/summer. There were divisions for Fossils/Novice and Masters. This is the competition were it was time to “put up or shut up”. No more blaming your teammates for your competition finish. No more yelling at your teammates for mistakes. It is all on your shoulders. This was for the elite rider/mount pairs and for the bragging rights for 2004!!! Some riders were so intimidated that they did not compete at all :) Actually all riders had a great time and would come back in an instant. More Individual competitions for 2005 !! The Fossils/Novice division brought out 4 hardy pairs; D McCready and Midnight, S Calhoun and JD, S Murdock and Pretty Polly, and A Fox and Trigger. S Calhoun/JD started out the Saturday sessions by winning the first session narrowly over a competitive D McCready/Midnight pair. S Murdock and A Fox were adjusting to the fast pace of the Individuals competition and finished third and fourth. S Calhoun/JD came out smoking in the second session on Saturday blowing away all competitors. There were more speed races in this session and S Murdock/Pretty Polly beat out the slower but steady D McCready/Midnight pair. A Fox/Trigger played well for the Novices and was competitive in many races. Sunday’s session consisted of more skill races, but S Calhoun//JD had no trouble taking first for the session and first overall for the Fossils division. D McCready/Midnight used their skills to finish in front of S Murdock/Pretty Polly for second place overall. A Fox/Trigger showed a lot of toughness and finished first in the Novice division. The masters division had 14 riders riding in 3 heats. The riders were placed in divisions according to the number of points earned at the MAG series competitions and the number of MGA competitions they competed. The first heat on Saturday contained, S Hickok/Copper Penny, J McCready/Nitro, C Reilly/Rubia, R Whitehair/Spontaneous Combustion, and J Stewart and her new pony Mocha. S Hickok of the Fast and Furious team showed why she deserved the first place rating by winning heat one over J Mcready by three points. Following behind these two were C Reilly, R Whitehair and J Stewart. The second heat on Saturday contained. V Brown/Sprite, M Washburn/Lilly, M Vassallo/Sebastian, R Welniak/Maxwell, and K Wilson/Osh Kosh. V Brown/Sprite quickly adjusted to playing the individual rules games and took first by 4 points over M Washburn and borrowed pony Lilly. Finishing out the heat were M Vassallo, R Welniak, and K Wilson. The third heat of session one contained rider pairs, S Welniak/Phat Chance, B Calhoun/Bustin’ Dust, J Hoke/Sommerset, and E Schmitt/Holland. S Welniak squeaked out a one-point win over B Calhoun who was riding her pony Bustin’ Dust for the first time in two months. Dusty was recovering from a stifle injury she got at the President’s Cup back in September. J Hoke beat out E Schmitt for third place in the heat. Saturday's session two found all the rider pairs rearranged again according to points earned in the first session. S Hickok, V Brown, and S Welniak earned the first place seeds for their heats based on their top points in the previous session. Session 2, Heat 1 had the following riders butting heads, S Hickok, C Reilly, B Calhoun, R Welniak, and K Wilson. S Hickok and Copper Penny once again squeaked out.a close first place finish. This time by 2 points over the very competitive pair C Reilly and Rubia. B Calhoun and Bustin’ Dust were showing some rust after being off for those two months and finished third. R Welniak and Maxwell pushed B Calhoun hard but finished fourth over a fast closing K Wilson and Osh Kosh. The second heat of session two placed V Brown against old teammates M Vassallo and J McCready, and also E Schmitt and J Stewart. The White Ice teammates finished first, second, and third (V Brown, M Vassallo, and J McCready) in this heat. E Schmitt had some tough calls and finished fourth. J Stewart and her green pony played well and finished fifth. The third heat of session two placed riders from four different MGA teams riding head-to-head, S Welniak, M Washburn, R Whitehair, and J Hoke. M Washburn showed he still had the skills and heart and pushed S Welniak throughout the heat. However, S Welniak beat him out by 2 points. J Hoke had a tough time when Somerset decided he had enough for the day and shut down giving R Whitehair the third place finish in this heat. Riding individual games is tough on the riders and the ponies. There are lots of tight right hand turns and all out speed. The deep footing in the arena made it even harder on the ponies. The competition had called for two sessions on Sunday but after looking at the ponies, we cut the Sunday session to just one… the finals. The C Finals had E Schmitt/Holland, R Whitehair/Spontaneous Combustion, K Wilson/Osh Kosh, and J Stewart/Mocha competing. E Schmitt barely beat out a fast riding R Whitehair for first place. K Wilson played well to take third. J Stewart continued to improve to take fourth. Watch out for Mocha next year!! In the B Finals, B Calhoun/Bustin’ Dust recovered from their so-so Saturday to tieJ Hoke/Somerset in the final race. B Calhoun took the tie-breaker and the first place ribbon for this division. C Reilly finished a solid performance with the third place finish. We needed another tie-breaker to decide fourth and fifth between M Vassallo/Sebastian and R Welniak/Maxwell. M Vassallo won the tie-breaker to take fourth for the B Finals. In the A Finals, S Hickok/Copper Penny shot out with a quick lead over V Brown/Sprite, M Washburn/Lilly, S Welniak/Phat Chance, and J McCready/Nitro. She held onto this lead for the first couple of races but then the others began picking away at her lead. V Brown settled down and took the overall lead with just a couple of races left. However, M Washburn was not done yet and pushed Lilly to within one by the end of the A Finals. What a great A Finals with the lead changing many times. All the rider pairs had a chance to win this one. V Brown and Sprite however came out with the bragging rights for 2004 as the top rider for the MAG series. Congrats to all!! Fossil Division
Novice Division
Masters Division
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