No. 2 Texas A&M began its spring slate with a 10-0 sweep against 3-2 Dartmouth College at the Hildebrand Equestrian Complex on Saturday, Jan. 27.
The meet between the two was a single discipline meet that only included the jumping-seat competitions of flats and fences.
For the now 6-1, 3-0 Aggies, they showed no sign of rust after almost three months of no meets as three Aggies were able to score above 90 in the flats competition.
A&M kicked things off in the flats competition, as junior Brooke Brombach achieved a score of 92. An incredibly difficult feat that Dartmouth senior Abby Niles would have to reach when she started the second round. However, Niles was only able to obtain a score of 82, giving A&M its first score of the day.
The Maroon and White next got on the board with another 90+ score performance as senior Devon H. Thomas scored 91 in the second round to best freshman Cassidy Exner’s score of 79.
Following Brombach and H. Thomas’s impressive starts was sophomore Devan M. Thomas, who scored 80 to give the Aggies their third point as Big Green senior Margot Luria was unable to match with only a score of 76.
Dartmouth freshman Samantha Takacs was fourth to go in the first round and achieved a score of 87 on the horse named Zeus. However, when senior Maggie Nealon rode Zeus, lightning struck as she was able to tie the highest flat score of all time with a score of 96 to give the Maroon and White their fourth point of the contest.
The final blow for the Big Green in the flats was when senior Rachel Freel scored only 73 to lose to A&M junior Rylee Shufelt’s score of 76, giving A&M the 5-0 sweep.
The fence competition was up next in the meet and H. Thomas scored the first point as she started the second round with a score of 84 to beat out Takacs’ score of 50 from the first round.
A&M’s lead in the competition became 2-0 when Freer only could obtain a score of 80 compared to freshman Ali Treuting’s 83 score from the first round.
The lead continued to 3-0 when sophomore Alexa Leong scored 83 to narrowly beat out Exner’s score of 80.
Things only worsened for Dartmouth when Luria only scored 40 compared to freshman Kate Egen’s 82, scoring the fourth point for the Aggies.
The day ended with how it started, as Brombach closed things out with a score of 87 to beat out Niles’ score of 81 and complete the 5-0 sweep for A&M in the fence competition.
Next up for the Aggies is a rematch against South Carolina on Saturday, Feb. 10 at home.
