Newburgh Youth Polo Club to Compete at Nationals in Texas
Tuesday (March 19th) a local polo club will travel to The Brookshire Polo Club in Brookshire, Texas for the United States Polo Association Nationals USPA I/I National Interscholastic Championships scheduled to begin March 20th and finish on Sunday the 24th. This will be the third straight year that Gardnertown Polo Club has made it to the finals.
Gardnertown Polo earned its way to the finals this week by winning at Cornell's Oxley Arena back in February. They successfully bested the completion at the Regional Championships that were played February 22nd thru the 24th. They beat the Myopia Polo Club in the semi finals and then went on to beat Yale Polo Club in the finals. For the third year in a row Gardnertown Polo was crown North East Open Regional Champions. They qualified to go to this year regional championship by play matches from October to January.
The team traveling to Texas to represent Gardnertown is Jack Whitman a freshman, Winston Painter a Sophomore, Matteo Chaux a Junior and Senior John Dencker. The team were finalists for the National Title in 2018 and are hoping that the third time is a charm in Texas, they plan to ride away with the Championship Title next Sunday. Six Teams will compete in a bracket format. Because of Garndertown's seeding they are automatically advanced into the second bracket. This also happens to be the first year that The Open Finals and Girls Finals are being held at the same place and time.
Over the years the team has had many players move from JV to Varisty. John Dencker has been to all three nationals, Matteo Chaux will be their for the second time this year. Winston Painter and Jack Whitman are headed to Nationals for the first time. Both John and Winston were also All-Stars at this years Regional Championship.