Call it a four-peat or a grand slam, by any
name or title, the Lake equestrian team recently earned its fourth consecutive state title. The team
competes in the Ohio Interscholastic Horse Show Association (OIHSA).What makes their accomplishment more
significant is the fact the team has only been in existence for five years."I have never seen a group
of girls get along as these girls do. They are always helping each other," said Jenna Workman, who
founded the team in 2009 and serves as a coach. "I’m so glad they work so well together and its a great
accomplishment for the entire team."Workman, who coaches the team along with her mother, Connie
Workman, is currently a senior at University of Toledo; while her mother also serves as the chairman of
OIHSA District 2.As a freshman at Lake High School, Jenna Workman was frustrated that Lake didn’t have a
team, she thus rode for Perrysburg that year and Toledo Christian Academy her sophomore year.However, she
said she knew there were enough riders to field a team and so she organized the first team in 2009
consisting of five members. The team is not sponsored by Lake High School, so they do not include "high
school" in the team name.In the OIHSA, if your school doesn’t have a team, the rider can ride for any
other school they choose. This year’s championship team consisted of four Lake students, three from Elmwood
and one from Rossford.The state champions are seniors Ellen Johns, Alissa Knieriem and Rhianna Reaume, all
from Lake, with the latter two attending Penta Career Center. Reaume is a two-year member; while Johns and
Knieriem have been part of all four championships.The only junior on the team is Kylee Smith, a Penta
student with Elmwood as her home school. She has been on the team for two years. Taylor Barndt and Lauren
Nissen are the sophomores on the team. They attend Elmwood and Rossford, respectively. The freshman team
members are Hannah Johns of Lake, and Hannah Duty who attends Elmwood.

This year each year state champion received an embroidered bridle bag for their equipment. The
team also got T-shirts. Their parents also pitched in with photo books and cookies for the champs.Their
coaches note that the entire team showed consistently throughout the summer, including 4-H shows and others
including open shows throughout the area.Over the course of the season, the team competes in three district
OIHSA shows in September at the Wood County Fairgrounds. District competitors include locals teams from
Eastwood, Otsego, Port Clinton and Bowling Green. Other teams competing at the district (in different
divisions) were: Genoa, Toledo Christian, Oak Harbor and Perrysburg.Lake’s district consists of nine teams
with 73 riders showing 97 horses.Interestingly, the state has four districts, all based in Northwest Ohio.
In addition to Lake’s district based at the Wood County Fairgrounds, the other three districts are located
in Swanton, Napoleon and Fremont.Each district is further divided into three divisions based on the number
of riders on the team.Each rider can compete on two different horses and Lake has two members who each bring
two horses.With a combined score of 427 points accumulated from all three shows, Lake easily qualified to go
to State by out-scoring its closet competitor, Port Clinton, by 159 points.Even more impressive, the team’s
total was more than all the teams, including teams that had twice as many riders.Each event includes 20
classes putting the riders and equestrians through the various events both in the saddle, bareback and in
showmanship.Lake recently received their state championship award at a banquet held at Ole Zim’s in
Gibsonburg.While Jenna gives credit to the entire team, she also takes great pride having been a team member
and now a coach."It means a lot more to me as a coach because I did start the team and I am so involved
in the organization," she said.Each team presented a "Sportsmanship Award" to one of its
members. This year’s award for Lake was presented to Knieriem. Also Johns was awarded a $500 college
scholarship presented to a senior. She will be attending Ohio State University ATI in Wooster.