March 17 - The Cottage Grove OHSET team made some noise at the second of three district meets this past Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. OHSET is the Oregon High School Equestrian Team, a group of athletes and horses that compete at the district and state level.  

The team is coached by two former alumni Sara Witty (Head Coach) and Katie Jungling (Assistant Coach for CG).     

The meet starts with cow events on Friday. Alyssa Jungling came into the meet with a 9th place finish in Working Rancher from the first meet in February and improved on that finish to take 3rd place in meet #2.  

In Team Versatility, the team of Abby Lloyd, Alyssa Jungling, Bri Wittmer and Mia Zoll finished 8th in both meets. Team Versatility has each athlete perform a different equine discipline.   

Saturday is performance day at the OHSET meet. The events are based on completing specific maneuvers in front of judges. In Working Pairs, two athletes select a theme and pair it with music to perform a specific pattern.    

In meet #1, the team of Abby Lloyd and Alyssa Jungling placed 5th and improved that to a 4th place finish in meet #2. Ryan Bell and Bri Wittmer took 10th place in working pairs in meet #1 and improved to 9th place in meet #2.   

The crowning event on Saturday was Drill.  In that event, five or more athletes complete maneuvers to music.  The team of Lloyd, Jungling, Wittmer, Zoll and Bell took 3rd place in meet one and improved on their pattern to place 2nd in meet #2.   

The team officially double medaled and became the first state qualifier for the Cottage Grove team.   

Coach Sara Witty said, “I am so unbelievably proud of this team. All the kids carried flags this meet, which adds to the degree of difficulty when performing such complex maneuvers. We also added more speed to increase crowd appeal and difficulty. The athletes handled the changes like pros and put on a great show.”  

Sunday was all about speed as gaming events taking center stage. The Canadian Flags team of Bell, Jungling, Lloyd and Wittmer blistered the field in meet #1 to take first place but struggled in meet #2.  They still have a chance to double medal in meet #3 and secure their spot in the state meet.   

In bi-rangle the team of Zoll and Wittmer were double medal winners and earned their chance to compete at the state meet after finishing second in both meet #1 and meet #2.  The team of Lloyd and Jungling added a 4th place finish in bi-rangle in meet #2.   

In barrels, Zoll took 2nd place in meet #1 and then followed that with a 4th place finish in meet #2.  Lloyd followed a 5th place finish in barrels in meet #1 with a 6th place in meet #2.    

In poles, Jungling placed 5th in both meet #1 and meet #2.  Zoll place 6th in poles in meet #1 and followed up with a 9th place finish in poles in meet #2.   

In Individual flags Lloyd and Bell finished 7th and 8th respectively in meet #1.  In meet #2, Bell finished 2nd, Caydence Rubio came in 6th, Jungling finished in 9th place and Lloyd rounded out the top 10.   

The final gaming event, keyhole, saw another double medal performance from Jungling.  She had a 1st place finish in the first meet and then placed 2nd this meet to qualify for state in the event.  Lloyd won keyhole in meet #2 with a time of 7.9 seconds and Zoll added a 10th place finish.   

Coach Witty said, “There were definitely some happy tears shed by parents, coaches, and athletes after Keyhole. It was a great way to finish the weekend.”   

Up next is the third and final South Valley District Meet the weekend of March 31st through April 2nd at the Oregon Horse Center in Eugene.  Then the team will prepare for the state meet held in Redmond, OR in May.