The No. 1 Auburn Tigers’ equestrian team took part in the NCEA National Championship earlier this week in Ocala, Florida, looking to take home the school’s seventh national title and its first since 2019.
The team entered the week aiming to make up for a surprising defeat against the No. 5 Texas A&M Aggies in the SEC Championship three weeks prior. After a highly accomplished season in which the team went 10–4 (with two of the losses decided by overall score tiebreaker), the Tigers received an automatic bye into a quarterfinal matchup against the No. 8 Fresno State Bulldogs.
The Tigers’ quarterfinal matchup began with a rather odd start, as both schools were tied through the first two rounds of fences. Auburn sophomore Ariana Marnell and freshman Emily Jurnovoy responded by winning two of the next three rounds to put the Tigers up 2–1 after the first event. With momentum on its side, Auburn went on a huge run, winning its next ten rounds and sweeping the flat and horsemanship events. Sophomore Kate Hagerty led the way for the Tigers on flat, earning an impressive score of 92 in her round. Meanwhile, in horsemanship, senior Alexia Tordoff led the Tigers with a score of 76.8. Auburn dropped its final event, reining, 3–2 against the Bulldogs, but having already secured the meet in the previous three events, the Tigers finished Thursday’s matchup with an impressive 14–4 win.
After defeating a top-ten opponent in dominant fashion and going on an impressive 13-round win streak the day before, Auburn headed into its Friday semifinal matchup against No. 4 South Carolina with a chip on its shoulder.
After dropping its first two rounds of fences, Auburn recovered as Marnell and junior Avery Glynn took back-to-back rounds with scores of 88.3, tying the meet at 2–2. In the swing round of the event, Gamecocks senior Natalie Jayne won with a score of 88.3, even earning a near-perfect 98 from one of the judges.
With Auburn heading into the flat event down 2–3, the team was in desperate need of a round win to keep the match within reach. The event did not begin as the Tigers had hoped. After South Carolina took the first three rounds to go up 6–2, Auburn cut into the deficit in the final two rounds, once again thanks to clutch performances from both Marnell (88.3) and Glynn (90.7).
Horsemanship proved to be a back-and-forth event. After Auburn’s Caroline Fredunberg and South Carolina’s Carly Jenkins opened with matching scores of 75.2, the Gamecocks took rounds two and three to go up 8–4. Auburn once again refused to give up, as both Tordoff and junior Callie Hogg won the final two rounds to keep the meet within reach heading into the final event, reining.
The Tigers opened reining with two huge victories in the first two rounds from Tordoff and freshman Sofia Tieche, both decided by less than a single point. With Auburn taking its fourth straight round, the Tigers had evened the match at 8–8 for the first time all day. With everything coming down to the final three rounds, it was South Carolina that rose to the challenge. The Gamecocks won back-to-back rounds, each by total scoring margins of 0.3 or less. With Auburn needing to take the final round in hopes of forcing a total points tiebreaker, South Carolina ensured none would be needed, as sophomore Olivia Cardi secured the round and an 11–8 victory for the Gamecocks.
Although it was an unfortunate ending for a Tigers squad with high expectations heading into the tournament, the team showed great resilience, coming back from four-point deficits twice during the meet. The Tigers will now look ahead to next season in hopes of capturing the program’s eighth national title.
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Jonathan is a freshman majoring in industrial and systems engineering. He started with The Plainsman in the fall of 2025.
