June 16, 2010 — The Portola Valley Training Center in Menlo Park, Calif., was the site of the June 5-6 selection trial for teams hoping to represent the U.S. at the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games. It was a celebration of top vaulting and Woodside Vaulters’ 20th anniversary as a vaulting club.
All five declared teams were present and the top two repeated the last trial’s placings. F.A.C.E. topped the leader board with an impressive overall score of 8.272, an improvement of more than 0.5 points over their score from Garrod’s Spring Classic. Adding and tweaking some incredible moves to their Romeo and Juliet theme made for exciting entertainment.
Isabelle Parker, coach of the Woodside team which held on to the second spot, said that her vaulters wanted to tell a story, a production of the Lion King tale with appropriate music and costumes on team horse Giovanni. They had a final score of 7.605.
In the individual men’s gold competition, Devon Maitozo topped the final overall scores with an 8.426 on Palatine. Just in case his F.A.C.E. team is not selected he is also competing as an individual. Recovering from a double knee surgery, he’s back in business.
On the individual women’s gold slate, all top five names again came up in the same podium order as the trials at Garrod’s Spring Classic with Mary McCormick in first place with 8.699, then Alicen Divita, Megan Benjamin, Katherine Wick and Elizabeth Ioannou.
Top individual vaulters and teams have applied for several CVI2* events outside of the U.S. in the upcoming month. They will be selected depending on scores and the number of available invitations. Included are FEI Recognized events at Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada, and Krumke and Aachen in Germany. Those scores influence the outcome of the selection process. The next U.S. Selection Trial is FACE Off July 17-18 in Somis, Calif.