Gophers Claim One of Region IV's Bids to National Horse Show

Jabin, Fink Will Represent Goucher in Individual Competition

LAURINBURG, N.C. -- The IHSA Zone IV Championships conducted today offered the high point colleges in each of the zone's four regions the opportunity to grab one of the two available bids to 2013 National Horse Show next month in Harrisburg, Pa. Goucher, which last weekend nailed down the Region I title, needed to achieve a higher score than two of the other three teams it was competing against.

Goucher's team, which had Karli Postel (Thousand Oaks, Calif./Oaks Christian School) competing in the open division, Joey Fink (Baltimore, Md./The Park School) in the intermediate division, Anna Carmichael (Colorado Springs, Colo./William J. Palmer) in the novice division, Kaduk Sherpa (East Aurora, N.Y./The Park School) in advanced walk-trot-canter equitation and Kaili Janette (New Haven, Conn./Hebrew High School of New England) in walk-trot, found itself it a tight three-way battle for the two bids to nationals.

Postel, who was the reserve high point rider in Region I this season, was awarded first place in both open fences and open flat. Fink took first place in intermediate flat and second in intermediate fences. Carmichael turned in third-place performances in both the jumping and flat phases in the novice division.

Sherpa and Janette also came in third as Goucher finished the team competition with a score of 42 points.

Drexel, which came out of Region IV, finished with 21 points. The remaining three schools, however, were separated by only six points with Goucher coming in second behind St. Andrews, the Region III champion, which earned a score of 46 points, and Virginia, the repesentative out of Region II, ending up with 40 points.

That means St. Andrews and Goucher will both advance to the team competition at nationals. For the Gophers, it will be their third all-time appearance. They placed 14th overall back in 2007 when, like this year, they went as the runner-up from Zone IV. Last year, they were Zone IV champions and finished in a tie with Penn State for seventh place.

Goucher will also have two riders entered in individual competition at nationals, which take place May 2-4. Addie Jabin (Annapolis, Md./Severn School) will go as the Zone IV champion in intermediate flat and the reserve champion in intermediate fences; Fink as the runner-up in novice flat at zones.

Fink just missed advancing in novice fences as he placed third today. Also placing third for Goucher was Laura Malone (Weston, Mass./Weston) in novice flat.