South Jordan, Utah – The United States Equestrian Federation (USEF)/American Vaulting Association (AVA) Vaulting National Championships will host the best vaulters in the country this week at the Salt Lake County Equestrian Park in South Jordan, Utah, on August 24-27, 2017. More than 175 vaulters and 50 horses, along with coaches and lungers, will meet to compete for championships in ten divisions. Awards include team champions in A, B, and C divisions, while male and female individuals compete for Gold, Silver, and Bronze division titles. One pair will capture the Open Pas de Deux National Championship.

The first classes begin on Friday with compulsories, and competition continues on Saturday with freestyles and additional compulsories. Additional classes and all awards will be presented on Sunday. 

Five-time national champion Mary McCormick (Woodside, Calif.) is expected to compete in the Female Gold division and will have to outshine vaulters such as Caroline Morse (Los Gatos, Calif.), Jace Brooks (Eagle Mountain, Utah), Bodhi Hall (San Jose, Calif.), the current USEF Junior Female  Ranking leader, and Tessa Divita (Portola Valley, Calif.), who have all competed at the FEI World Vaulting Championships for Juniors. 

Kristian Roberts (Moss Beach, Calif.) comes off a strong year of competition, leading the USEF Senior Male Ranking with two CVI3* victories and a top-ten finish at the CVIO4* in Aachen, Germany, to compete in the Male Gold division, where he will try to record his fifth national championship.

First- and second-place finishers in the 2016 Female Silver division, Calle Davis (Spanish Fork, Utah) and Courtney Madden (Loveland, Calif.) will compete at this year’s national championships, as will the Male Silver division winner from 2016, Brooks, and Female Bronze division winner, Melanie Ford (Fort Collins, Colo.). 

Other high performance vaulters competing include Luke Overton (Stanwood, Wash.), who won two individual male titles at CVIJ2* competition in 2017 and is the current USEF Junior Male Ranking leader, and Kimberly Palmer (Half Moon Bay, Calif.), who was a bronze medalist at the 2016 FEI World Cup™ Vaulting Final in Dortmund, Germany, in the Pas de Deux with Cassidy Palmer.. 

Katerina Shabalin (Fort Collins, Colo.) and Sydney Schimack (Laporte, Colo.), winners of the Preliminary Pas de Deux in the 2016 national championships, are slated to return in 2017.

For more about the USEF/AVA Vaulting National Championships, visit americanvaulting.org. 

To learn more about the U.S. Vaulting Team, visit usef.org or follow USA Vaulting on Facebook.