By Jackson Posey | Sports Writer, Hannon Joseph | LTVN Reporter
Following its Green & Gold Scrimmage on Friday, Baylor equestrian is ready to kick off its season against Texas A&M at 1 p.m. on Sept. 29 at the Hildebrand Equine Complex in Bryan-College Station.
The Bears have a young team, with 38 underclassmen to just 20 upperclassmen and three graduate transfers. The team brought back 13 of its 19 point-winners from last season, including senior jumping seat and All-American Madison Mitchell and fifth-year senior jumping seat and NCEA Co-Flat Rider of the Year Dominika Silvestri.
“We have 21 freshmen or transfers that have joined our program this year,” head coach Casie Maxwell said. “So really, this [past scrimmage] was about kind of letting them see how everything runs for a home meet. … [I’m] super proud of the team as a whole [for] just really rolling with the punches this entire week, and especially [Friday] and really still staying on point, working really well together and then really putting out some really solid rides. I couldn’t ask any more of them.”
LTVN’s Hannon Jospeh brings you into the stable for a closer look.
Entering her seventh season leading the program, Maxwell said last year’s finish isn’t necessarily indicative of future wins. Still, she said she’s excited for what the new slate brings.
“We had a great season last year, but everything’s new,” Maxwell said. “It’s a new set of circumstances. It’s a new set of judges, new set of horses, new set of opponents and things like that. And so, our returners should carry a lot of confidence, because they had some really confident rides as they went, especially through the postseason. We really hung in there with SMU, but they have to come out here this year and show that exact same amount of confidence.
“So I like this year. I like that we are very young, and we’re kind of building from the ground up and starting over with a very young squad. And I mean young in our freshman and sophomore classes, the larger majority, and so it’s a really fun time to rebuild and just reunite everybody.”
With the official season fast approaching, sophomore jumping seat Lauren Jorgensen said she’s pumped to get back into competition.
“It was really cool,” Jorgensen said of Friday’s scrimmage. “I’m glad that we do this. I think a scrimmage is a great way just to get back in the ring. … It’s so nice having all your teammates just cheer you on and getting to see all the new faces with the freshmen, cheering all them on. I just wanted to come out here and kind of get my nerves out a little bit, get everything back underneath me.”
With the team’s first match coming up next week, “hype” would be an understatement, according to Jorgensen.
“It’s crazy,” Jorgensen said. “We’re all super excited. And I think this kind of gave us an idea of just things to work on going into our A&M meet on the road especially, and just kind of get little mistakes out of the way so we can go into that meet confident and ready to roll.”
