Georgia Arrives in Waco For NCEA National Championship

LIVE SCORING: http://gado.gs/8wf
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS: http://gado.gs/8wh
FULL NOTES PACKET: http://gado.gs/8wo

WACO, Texas -- The No. 1 Georgia equestrian team has arrived in Waco, Texas for the 2018 NCEA National Championship to be held April 18-21 at the Extraco Event Center.

As a team, the Bulldogs (11-1, 7-1 SEC) will take on the eighth-seed South Carolina on Thursday, April 19. Georgia has defeated the Gamecocks in all three meetings this season, including a 16-4 defeat in the semifinal round of the SEC Championship.

Georgia was seeded first, securing a bye, in Equitation on the Flat, Horsemanship, and Reining. The Equitation Over Fences squad comes in seeded second and will face West Texas A&M to start competition on Wednesday, April 18.

"We've got to execute this week," Georgia head coach Meghan Boenig said. "These girls have been practicing so hard, and I'm really impressed with the strength we've seen during our postseason every single day, growing. We can't be distracted by a No. 1; we have to come in during every single one of these rides and continue to grow."

Georgia enters the 2018 National Championship looking for the program's seventh title. A win in the semifinals would mark the 11th time in 12 years that Georgia will advance to compete in the final round of the national championship.

Georgia has captured the most NCEA Overall Championships with six, coming in 2003, 2004, 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2014.

Georgia is coming off the program's third SEC championship as the Bulldogs topped Auburn, 12-7, on Saturday, March 31, to take the league crown in back-to-back seasons.

The newly expanded NCEA National Championship format will include a team-seeded bracket for the four event titles. Event rankings were determined by statistics of regular season head-to-head competition. All champions will be crowned on Saturday, April 21.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
NCEA National Championship Team Title—The top 8 teams will be competing in the NCEA National Championship Team Title. Each team will compete head to head with 4 riders in each of the Events; Equitation Over Fences and Equitation on the Flat for the Hunt Seat events and Reining and Horsemanship for the Western events. The team that receives the most points (16 possible points available for each matchup) will advance to the next day. The team competition begins on Thursday with the quarterfinals and the semifinals. The conclusion of the team events run on championship Saturday.

NCEA National Championship Event Titles—The top 16 teams will compete in separate brackets for each event; Equitation over Fences, Equitation on the Flat, Horsemanship and Reining starting on Wednesday, April 18^th with the first round of action. Each event quarter finals and semi finals will take place on Friday, April 20^th and the finals for each event will take place on Championship Saturday following the Team Overall National Championship.

NCEA National Championship Discipline Titles for Hunt Seat and Western: The combined points each team accrues in the NCEA Hunter Seat Discipline Competitions (Equitation over Fences and Equitation on the Flat) and the NCEA Western Discipline Competitions (Horsemanship and Reining) will determine the Overall Discipline titles.
See the point breakdown below:

Event Champion: 11 points
Event Runner Up: 7 points
Semi-Finalist: 4 points
Quarter-Finalist: 2 points

The NCEA has partnered with EQSportsNet to provide live coverage of the NCEA National Championship. To watch this year's NCEA National Championship, visit https://eqsports.net/schedule to create an account or log into an existing account.

FOLLOW GEORGIA EQUESTRIAN: For complete information on Georgia equestrian, follow the team on its social media channels via @UGAEquestrian on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS:
Wednesday, April 18: Event Championships First Round
Thursday, April 19: Team Championship Quarterfinals & Semifinals
Friday, April 20: Event Championships Quarterfinals & Semifinals
Saturday, April 21: Canadian Pacific NCEA Championship Saturday: Team & Event Finals
12:30 PM Crowning of TEAM National Champion
5:00 PM NCEA Championship Awards Presentation

Georgia Arrives in Waco For NCEA National Championship

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