DALLAS (SMU)– The reality of the accomplishment in 2023 was new territory for SMU equestrian.
Winning the program's first NCEA national title was sometimes difficult to comprehend. The Mustangs finished the season with a nearly unblemished record and captured the school's first team national championship in nearly four decades.
A year later, the journey was different, but the end result was the same. Despite some setbacks during the regular season, SMU navigated the postseason bracket and secured a second straight NCEA crown.
Now, as the 2024-25 season begins, the Mustangs have the experience and understanding of what it takes to be champions. The question – can they do it again?
"Being a defending national champion, that's exciting in itself – and being back-to-back is a whole other ball game in my opinion. We've done it before, but at the same time it's all new being back-to-back," graduate student Nya Kearns said. "Our juniors have won every time they've been at nationals. I think that's cool. I would love to leave this team as defending national champions and I just think everybody is really pumped, really excited and ready to get to work."
SMU enters the season balancing a blend of known commodities and unproven talent. On one hand, the team returns two of college equestrian's brightest stars in Kearns and Augusta Iwasaki. Last spring, both were first-team All-Americans, while Kearns was named the NCEA Horsemanship Rider of the Year and Iwasaki earned NCEA Fences Rider of the Year.
Graduate student Chalyce Head is also back after securing All-NCEA Championship honors last April, along with veterans like Elli Yeager, Hensley Humphries, Shelby Clausen, Emma Engel and Hannah Hoch, each of whom had eight or more individual wins last season. Of the 37 combined Most Outstanding Performer honors earned by SMU riders last season, 25 are back.
Beyond that, first-year head coach Brad Kearns has a lot of evaluation to do. While a large portion of the roster is returning, many haven't been asked to contribute on an everyday basis. Along with several fresh faces joining the program, the new Mustang leader has a lot to figure out before the team travels to Fort Worth on September 20 for a rematch of last year's NCEA Championship match with Metroplex rival TCU. That starts a string of four straight road matches to open the 2024-25 campaign, with visits to TCU, Texas A&M, Georgia and Auburn. The Mustangs won't ride at home until October 25 when the Horned Frogs visit Dallas.
"It's almost a little bit daunting in that we have so much talent it's really going to be hard to know who is going to compete. It's a great and terrible situation to be in," Coach Kearns said with a laugh. "Looking at the talent we have on the team, it's like, 'Well, this one could be a competitor, this one could be a starter.' They all are just really, really great competitors and bring a lot to the table. It's exciting."
No matter the lineup or the schedule, the veterans know what it takes to compete at the highest level of collegiate equestrian. And that mental toughness could make all the difference.
After suffering some regular season losses last year, the Mustangs had to regroup before closing out the schedule strong. The experience showed them that adversity is an opportunity for growth.
While it might be a new roster, new coach and tough schedule ahead, SMU is ready to navigate it all with a focus on finishing atop the collegiate equestrian world yet again.
"My freshman year was not real. It's not normal to go 12-1. This past season just showed us that just because you don't win every meet doesn't mean you can't win the finals," Iwasaki said. "We have to come out of the gate strong. We're two-time national champions. We can't just coast through the season. We have to see what we have this year, but we know we have an amazing team and we're super excited."
