EASTON, Mass. (May 4, 2022)-Haley Whittaker of the Stonehill College equestrian team qualified for the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association (IHSA) National Championship in the novice flat event, which will take place on Thursday, May 5 at 9 a.m. at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex & Expo Center in Harrisburg, Pa.

Whittaker is the first Skyhawk to compete at nationals since Emma McConville did in 2019, and the 15th ever in program history. 

Whittaker qualified for the National Championship after taking first in the novice flat during the IHSA Zone 1 Championships last April. With Whittaker's first-place finish in the novice flat, she now has four career first-place finishes in the event. She also posted a second-place finish in her IHSA Show debut during the Tufts University Show (Oct. 12, 2019).

At the Zone 1, Region 4 Championships on Saturday, March 26, Whittaker paced the Skyhawks when she took home first place in the novice flat event. Prior to her first-place finish at the IHSA Zone 1 Region 4 Championships, Whittaker competed in the novice flat two other times this season which was in the Boston University Show (Oct. 16, 2021) and the Wheaton/Bridgewater State Show (March 12, 2022).  She also partook in the novice flat one other time which was during the 2019-20 season in her IHSA debut at the Tufts University Show in which she finished second.

Overall on the season, the equestrian team finished second in the IHSA Zone 1 Region 4 Standings. 

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