Immel riding off to college

While most high school students settle in and delve into their back-to-school routines, senior Torie Immel is thinking about colleges and which one she will attend next fall.

But, unlike other students, Immel, a Newport Beach resident, is also preparing for a national championship.

If Immel’s name doesn’t sound familiar, that’s because she isn’t competing in your classic high school sport.

Her locker room is a barn and her teammate is a 12-year-old gelding named Ambassador.

Immel, a senior at Mater Dei High, and her horse are fresh off winning the section 10 regional qualifiers held in San Juan Capistrano on Sept. 13-17. Immel and her horse competed against the top riders from California, Nevada and Hawaii.

The win automatically qualified Immel for a spot in New York on Nov. 1 at the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals-Maclay National Championship.

“It’s exciting because [the win] qualified me for the national final,” Immel said. “All of the people who are going to be at the national are the best in the country from everywhere so just to be in that is a really big honor. It’s going to be competitive and it’s going to be hard.”

Immel’s road to the championship began 11 years ago when she first started riding. At age 6, she took her first riding lesson and by 7 she had already begun to compete.

“When I was younger, I did all the typical sports,” she said. “I did soccer and softball. One day, my mom took me to a riding lesson and I just fell in love with it. And I’ve stuck with it ever since.”

Being the best has required sacrifice, so it wasn’t long after she began to compete that Immel was forced to give up other sports.

Now 17, she has also had to balance being a top athlete with the day-to-day reality of being a senior at a well-known private Orange County high school.

That has meant competing in close to 30 events a year and keeping up her grades despite a heavy travel schedule.

“The tough thing about the nationals is that they’re all on the East Coast,” Immel said. “I usually leave on Thursday, fly back five-six hours on Sunday and then need to be back at school by 8 on Monday morning. It’s definitely tough with the time change and all the [school] I miss.”

Equestrian sports may not be what Mater Dei is known for, but Immel’s teachers have been understanding.

“Mater Dei is very sports minded,” Immel said. “They understand that athletes have to do what it takes to succeed in their sport so I have to communicate with my teachers a lot. It’s definitely tough [to miss so much time] but it’s going to help in the long run.”

The long run includes decisions about which college or university to attend.

Immel is being recruited by the three of the top NCAA Division I women’s equestrian programs. They are the University of Georgia, South Carolina and Auburn.

No pun intended, but a full-ride scholarship seems very likely. Immel’s popularity on the recruiting circuit is due to the fact that she is one of the top riders in the country.

She has already won a gold medal at the 2004 Junior Olympics and was the No. 1 rider in the country in her age division in 2005.

And, while the sport may not seem mainstream in California, the state routinely produces some of the sports’ top riders.

“There are three [states] in the United States where the top riders come from: New York, New Jersey and California,” said Jim Hagman, Immel’s longtime coach. “California, in show jumping, is always one of the top states. So, with her regional win, [Immel] goes into the national championship as one of the top riders in the country.”

Last year, Immel came close to making it to the national championship. She was leading her field up until the last jump at the regional qualifiers.

“Last year, she made an immature mistake — a nervous mistake,” Hagman said.

Immel made the mistake when she asked Ambassador to take an extra stride and that took away from the smoothness of her ride. While it wasn’t a huge mistake, it cost her the regional win and a chance at the national championship.

“This [sport] is judged more on how smooth the horse and rider work together as a team,” Immel said. “This is judged more on style so these jumps aren’t as high [as the Olympics]. It’s about how smooth you are and how you don’t visibly make mistakes.

“Last year, I probably would’ve won, but I made a stupid mistake which kept me out,” Immel said. “This year, I came back confident that I could [lead] again and not make a dumb mistake. I stuck to my plan and it worked.”

The national championship won’t be held until Nov. 1-5 in Syracuse, N.Y.

Until then, Immel will be just like other Orange County high school seniors: trying to pick out the right college.

When it’s November, she’ll be thinking about having no regrets.