K-State equestrian returns home today to face No. 3 Baylor.
“They’re excited,” head coach Casie Maxwell said. “They’re glad to be back at home. They’re definitely ready to come back out and defend their home arena.”
Junior in hunt seat Henley Adkins said the team is determined to win. K-State has a chip on their shoulder after losing a close meet to Oklahoma State 13-7 on Oct. 9. K-State is now 0-1 in the Big 12 and 1-1 overall. The Wildcats sit third in the Big 12.
“Everyone is on their A-game and showing why they deserve to win against Baylor,” Adkins said.
Maxwell said she believes the team rode confidently against Oklahoma State despite the fact that it might not have been reflected in the scores. To her, this shows that while the team is young they are still capable of going up against an experienced opponent.
“It makes us feel good that we don’t have a huge gap that we have to improve on,” Maxwell said.
Senior western rider Kara Guy said Oklahoma State put up some tough competition.
“They had some really great rides and so did we,” Guy said. “It’s always tough when it’s a judged sport.”
Baylor edged past No. 6 TCU in their last meet on a tiebreaker. The meet ended in a 9-9 draw that was decided based off of raw score. The win moved the Bears to 1-0 in the Big 12 and 4-0 overall. Baylor is now one of three teams in the country that remains undefeated, sitting behind No. 2 Auburn (3-0) and No. 1 Georgia (4-0). Baylor is ranked first in the Big 12.
Maxwell said the team will be focusing on minimizing errors going into the meet against Baylor.
“We’ve got to keep those penalties out of our rides before we can move forward to having those flashy, really aggressive rides,” Maxwell said.
Guy said she agrees that the little things are what tend to get the team in trouble.
“We’ve been practicing really well, so if we can take that into the arena it’s going to help,” Guy said.
For Friday, Maxwell said the team is preparing for Baylor by bringing the pressure in practice to help minimize errors.
“We want to practice every day like we’re going up against an opponent and not be complacent in practice so we’ll be better on game day,” Maxwell said.
K-State and Baylor will face off today at 10 a.m. at Timbercreek Stables.
