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52
summer
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fal l
By
Eva Van Prooyen
Photographed by
TC Reiner
Champions in Montecito
Westmont Men’s Polo Team won the 2013 United States Polo
Association National Intercollegiate Championships this April
C
ongratulations go out to the players, team captain
Patrick Uretz, Tony Uretz, Taylor Longo, Jake Bergman,
Ky Koebele, David Samaniego, and their coach John
Westley. Out of roughly 50 polo teams competing in
the country, the five qualifying men’s teams for the
Nationals were Westmont, University of Virginia, Cornell, Colorado State
University, and Southern Methodist University. The Nationals were held in
Houston, Texas, and in order to qualify, the team spent the months leading up
to the finals playing, and beating, college teams in its region. The colleges in
Westmont’s region are USC, Stanford, Cal Poly, University of Idaho, Oregon
State, and Washington State.
Collegiate polo is played in an arena format, with a clay sandy
surface, indoors, with three players on each side. Grass polo is played on
open air fields with four players on each side.
John Westley has been coaching for the Westmont Men’s and
Women’s Polo Teams for thirteen years, and reports the men’s team has
qualified for nationals seven times in the last eight years and played in the
championship finals three of those seven times.
This year, they were seeded fourth out of five men’s teams in the
Nationals. First they beat the fifth-seeded team, Southern Methodist
University, followed by beating the defending national champions,
University of Virginia, and finally beating Colorado State University in the
championship finals.