May 10, 2019
For the third year in a row the Central Texas Polo Association hosted a Southwestern Circuit General George S. Patton Jr. tournament at Two Wishes Polo Club in Lockhart, Texas, on Sunday, April 28. Due to the recently heavy rainfall, only three teams representing the Army, Navy and Coast Guard competed in the round-robin tournament.
In the opening ceremony of the game the Lockhart ISD Air Force JROTC Color Guard, made up of Jacqueline Suchite, Breanna Huggins, Alonso Rodriguez and Mayte Gonzalez, presented the American flag while Brooklyn Mendez sang the National Anthem.
The Army team was made up of Zoe Lehmer, Taimur Zeb, Chris Ballard, Javier Insua and John Greening. The Navy team included Tres De La Paz, Jessica Mignone, Carter Heltzen and CDR Karl Hilberg, USN (Ret) while the Coast Guard featured Lara Semmelmann, Patrick MacLeod, Gal Shweiki and Trey Crea.
While circuit military tournaments have a requirement that one player per team has to have a military connection, in this tournament all 12 players had served in the military or had a family member who served. Even the two umpires officiating, Robin Sanchez and Jack Crea, had a military connection.
The first two teams to play in the round robin were Army and Coast Guard. The Army rallied for a decisive victory, defeating Coast Guard 9-.5, with four of their total goals converted from the penalty line. Next, the Navy faced the Coast Guard for the second spot in the final. In a closely-fought game, the Navy emerged victorious over the Coast Guard 3.5-3, securing their spot in the final match against the Army.
In the championship final the Navy scored first, but the Army quickly responded with three goals of their own to lead 3-2. Again in the final chukker the Navy struck first with two goals, but Army retaliated to score the final two goals and the narrow win 5-4.
LtCol Tommy Hitchcock Jr., Army Air Corps, Most Valuable Player was presented to John Greening. The SGT Reckless, USMC, Best Playing Pony honors were awarded to Roulette, owned and played by Jessica Mignone. CDR Karl Hilberg, USN (Ret) was awarded the Col Gordon Johnston, Sportsmanship Award.
All photos ©David Murrell
Effective Date: Saturday, May 16, 2020
The suspension of USPA Tournaments and Events will be lifted for USPA Member Clubs in locales where hosting polo matches and tournaments is permitted under applicable state and local laws, executive orders and similar decrees. The USPA Member Clubs in these locales are encouraged to follow all such requirements of their state and local authorities with respect to polo operations. In addition, we also encourage all USPA Member Clubs to take the precautions recommended by the CDC. We are preparing a detailed list of best practices for USPA Member Clubs as they return to hosting USPA Tournaments and Events and plan to circulate these guidelines within the next week. We will continue to monitor the COVID-19 situation closely and will notify you if we determine a different course of action is necessary.
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