MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - The Kansas State women’s equestrian team continued their competition at the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association (IHSA) National Championships with the second day of activities held at Middle Tennessee State’s Horse Science Arena.

      Junior Erin Peery became the first Wildcat to hold a placing thus far at nationals, as she recorded a fourth-place finish in the AQHA High Point Rider competition in the rail phase.  Peery tallied 150 points in the event to finish in fourth place out of the 20 competitors from zones 2-9.

      The event is the first of two for the AQHA High Point Riders. Peery will ride in the second portion on Saturday in the reining phase. This is the final phase and will determine her overall outcome at nationals.

      "This was a great way to start off the western portion,” said head coach Lindsay Breidenthal.  “Erin (Peery) rode great, one of the better rides she's had this season and I'm just looking forward to her reining portion tomorrow.”

      Junior Dehlia Burdan finished her national debut with the second portion of the U.S. Equestrian/Cacchione Cup. Burdan was holding steady in the middle of the group as of Thursday with a 15^th place finish out of 29 riders. However, today’s ride in equitation over fences gained her only 62 points, which dropped her six spots to 21st in the rankings.

      “Dehlia (Burdan) drew a difficult horse and it took her one or two fences to figure it out,” said assistant coach Meghan Cunningham. “Both Dehlia and Janelle (Orr) did well and we are just glad to be here to compete with the best of the best.”

      The final participant for the Wildcats was senior Janelle Orr, who finished her K-State career by not placing in the novice equitation on the flat competition.

      Saturday’s show highlights Peery in AQHA High-Point Rider action in the reining phase as well as national veteran Brandi Vogel in individual western horsemanship. Vogel was the first rider in Wildcat history to earn an individual national title, as she won the advanced horsemanship category in 2002.

      Events are set to begin at 8:30 a.m. For more information and up-to-date results from nationals visit www.ihsa.com