Coach Boo Major said Gamecocks were underestimated all season
The South Carolina equestrian team capped off a tremendous month this weekend when it upset both Auburn and Georgia to win the Southern Equestrian Championship, the first such championship in program history.
This unpredictable run to history started Feb. 25, when the team knocked off then–No. 1 Auburn at home. The Gamecocks went on to defeat then–No. 4 Baylor on Senior Day, leading up to the Southern championships where they first beat No. 3 Auburn 12-6 before stunning No. 1 Georgia in a 10-10 tiebreaker on their home turf, a place where the Bulldogs have only lost one other time in program history.
The Gamecocks (9-5) have thus defeated three top-5 teams, including two top-ranked teams, in a row. Head coach Boo Major, who has led South Carolina to two national championships, says the team has been underestimated all season by outsiders.
“We feel like we’ve been given the underdog label, and it constantly showed up in the coaches’ poll,” Major said. “We knew we were better than where we were ranked, but we had a couple of bad breaks in the fall. We just had to have the right attitude, and we just had to wait for the ball to fall our way.”
The weekend began with USC dominating Auburn for the second time in five weeks on Friday. USC jumped out to a quick 6-3 lead thanks to a 4-1 win in Equitation over Fences. Amber Henter, Paige Dekko, Kimberly McCormack and Katherine Schmidt, who posted an event-high score of 179, all picked up wins for the Gamecocks.
After that, USC coasted to another 6-3 win in the Western event to wrap up the day. Johnna Letchworth and Layla Choate picked up two of the four Gamecock MVPs of the day. Carolyn Curcio and McCormack earned the other two.
The Gamecocks didn’t have long to celebrate the Auburn win, as they would have to face Georgia the next day, a team they lost to 11-8 earlier in the season. During the time between the two matches, Major said her team did a great job of refocusing themselves.
“We always play Georgia very close, but we knew that we had to stay focused,” Major said. “The girls were very excited that we made it into the finals, so one thing I was trying to do is not let them get too confident. They were great; they knew that they weren’t done and that they had to stick to the plan.”
The Gamecocks got off to a fast start, jumping out to a 3-2 lead in Equitation over Fences. Georgia stormed back to take an 8-7 lead after 3-2 wins in Horsemanship and Equitation on the Flat.
After losing two of the first three points in the final event, Reining, USC found itself in a must-win situation to force the tiebreaker. Riders Cody McMillion and Amanda Pope rose to the occasion and escaped with 1.5-point wins to seal the Gamecocks’ victory.
Choate joined McMillion and Pope as Reining winners while McCormack capped off a 4-for-4 weekend with wins in Equitation and Equitation over Fences.
“The really neat thing for me was that when they handed out the MVPs, none of our kids got them,” Major said. “To me that really speaks a lot for our team because everybody rode extremely well and as a team. We didn’t need the MVPs. That’s what it was all about was that everybody did well. Cody had a lot of pressure on her. We were very proud of her and all of those reiners. I give them a lot of props because we were under a lot of pressure.”
The Gamecocks will now look to seek the programs first national championship since 2007 April 12–14 in Waco, Texas.
“I really can’t say enough about the energy of this group and how they have the best attitude,” Major said. “It culminated at (Southern Championships), and now the big thing is whether we can continue that into the nationals.”