November 2021 Polo Players' Edition- NYTS Champions

NYTS Champions

Eastern Region Overcomes Wild Card Team

By United States Polo Association • Photos by Kaile Roos

Blue’s Taylor Olcott rides in stride with Yellow’s Sophia DeAngelis.

Las Brisas, Morgan Creek, Oak Brook and Due West Polo Clubs, along with the Chicago Polo Association welcomed 32 youth players from across the United States and Canada to compete in the headline NYTS National Championship event. Since the program’s inception in 2013, the NYTS National Championship doubled in size. This year, for the first time, four open teams and four girls’ teams participated. The competitors hailed from 22 USPA clubs, representing many regions, riding backgrounds and polo experiences.

Each team from the Open division was paired with a Girls’ division team, encouraging new friendships and a broader learning experience. Team coaches included former 7-goal player Tiger Kneece, and three current 4-goal American players (Marcos Alberdi, Patrick Uretz, Ulysses Escapite) that regularly compete at the highest levels of professional polo in the United States. Kneece coached his teams to victory in both the Cecil Smith Cup and the Girls’ Championship. The Chicago polo community provided fantastic venues throughout the week for the numerous scheduled games and events.

Cecil Smith Cup

Western Region’s Riley Jordan takes a knock-in.

Competing with friends and guided by her former intercollegiate/interscholastic coach, Eastern’s Sophie Grant was confident the strength of those relationships would benefit the team on the field.

“I believe that the well-rounded ability of all four players on our team led to our success and dominance,” she said. “The chemistry between the four of us and our coach, Tiger Kneece, was great. We’re all close friends off the field so it was easy to gel together on the field.”

Ultimately, Eastern’s team chemistry proved successful as the final bell rang with the team ahead, 8-6.

Wild Card’s Taylor Palacios, MVP Josh Escapite and Vlad Tarashansky.

Soda, Mariano Obregon’s 7-year-old Argentine mare played by Winston Painter in the first chukker, was named Best Playing Pony. Painter’s horsemanship skills were recognized when he received the Horsemanship Award. Leading Wild Card with four goals, Josh Escapite was named Matthew Cohen Most Valuable Player. Additionally, Western Region’s Quinn Kyle received the Sportsmanship Award.

In the consolation final, Western defeated Central, 5-4½.

Chrys Beal, Nino Obregon, Winston Painter, Marco Tulio Esquivel and Best Playing Pony Soda.

Girls’ Championship

Carlucho Arellano presents the Best Playing Pony award to Reagan Leitner's Sagebrush.

After introducing the Invitational East vs. West Challenge in 2017, the second division of NYTS became the invitational NYTS Girls’ Championship the following year to better represent the growing demographic of female players. NYTS Committee Chair Chrys Beal set her sights on expanding the girls’ division to four teams, reaching her objective this year when the NYTS program invited 16 female players to the national championship event.

The semifinal round began with Pink (Reagan Leitner, Madison Jordan, Kelsey Bray, Grace Fleishmann) overcoming Yellow (Gracie Brown, Sunny Diller, Sophia DeAngelis, Brianna Jordan), 5-3. Later in the day, Purple (Summer Kneece, Caroline Mathews, Saralyn Painter, Elise Pardue) got the best of Blue (Robyn Leitner, Taylor Olcott, Maya Miller, Caroline Mooney), 6½-1.

Purple met Pink in the final. Led by MVP Summer Kneece, the Purple teammates knew they had to keep their heads down and focus the entire four chukkers to beat a strong Pink team. After winning its first match with a strategy focused on offensive strength, the Pink team changed gears against Purple, maintaining a strong defensively-minded strategy. Leading by only a half goal at the beginning of the fourth chukker, the Purple team managed to find the goal twice to pull ahead 6½-5.

Both the Open and Girls’ divisions had four teams competing.

Coaching in the NYTS Girls’ Championship for the third time, Kneece had the honor of coaching his daughter Summer to the win.

“Girls’ Pink had some really good offensive players and we knew we were going to have to contain them to stay in the game. It can be challenging and fun at the same time to coach my daughter,” he explained. “She does well with it and she responds well.”

Best Playing Pony honors went to Sagebrush, an 8-year-old chestnut mare in Reagan Leitner’s string.

Sagebrush had previously been awarded Best Playing Pony at NYTS qualifiers in Aiken and Bluewater Creek. Competing for Blue, Robyn Leitner was given the Sportsmanship Award for her positive attitude, fairness and support for her peers on and off the field. Pink’s Madison Jordan received the Horsemanship Award.

In the consolation final, Blue defeated Yellow in a shootout.