Author: Damian Mendieta (Senior Writer)
Occidental Athletics has made a predominant name for itself in many aspects of student life as it ranges from varsity sports, club teams and intramurals for hundreds of student-athletes. However, a small group of students also engages in interesting athletics such as climbing 30 foot high boulders, dangling from midair on a trapeze and displaying superb horsemanship at horse competitions across the nation. While the college’s Division III athletes train in the Taylor Pool, Patterson Field and Anderson Baseball Field, six students make weekly treks to train at horse stables, climbing gyms or the Kinetic Theory Circus Arts School. Some train to develop quick methods to traverse the Jumper Division of horse competitions and others brush up for their circus performances at the book launch party for actor Rainn Wilson.
Albert Lee (junior) and Marah Bragdon (junior) are two dedicated rock climbers who have years of experience and hands riddled with blisters. Bragdon and Lee are the current official heads of the Rock Climbing Club at Occidental College. Their climbing stories began differently but have converged together at Occidental as they promote the introduction of their sport to other students. Bragdon began climbing at a young age with her mother while Lee developed a taste for the sport at the urging of a friend his junior year of high school.
Of the two major climbing categories, Lee claims bouldering as his favorite. The intense climb requires imaginative movement in a climber’s lower extremities and is generally considered the toughest form of rock climbing. “It’s the intensity of a 30 foot climb condensed into a 10 or 15 foot tall boulder,” Lee said.
Both climbers have advocated student participation in the climbing world, founding the Rock Climbing Club their sophomore year. Despite early success in gathering eager climbers, student participation began to dwindle as the year went by.
Regardless of waning support for the Rock Climbing Club, Bragdon and Lee have continued to climb at least twice a week. However, Lee contends that the climbing world recently dodged a bullet when Alex Honnold’s free-soloing video went mainstream. Honnold’s risky climb of Yosemite’s Half-Dome almost closed off some of his favorite climbing sites. “If he had fallen, the climbing area would have been closed off to climbers,” Lee said. “What you do with your climbing, that’s on you; but if you get an area closed off for climbers that’s not alright.”
Camilla Bennett (first-year) has been competing in equestrian sports for years with her beloved gray horse Player, first learning how to ride at the age of six. After owning several horses, Bennett said her favorite is Player, who her parents shipped to Los Angeles from her native Boston. She bought Player when he was nine years old, and he is now 12 years old and still going strong in horse showing.
Bennett is constantly training with Player to prepare for horse competitions. The events call upon not only Player’s superb abilities and Bennett’s horsemanship skills, but also the beauty of her horse.
The Hunter division is the only event that does not focus on ridership. Bennett likes that the Hunter Division showcases Player’s agility without her having to control the event from his back. “It’s all about the horse,” Bennett said. “If the horse manages to jump across everything correctly it doesn’t matter if the rider is falling off.”
The Jumper Division assesses the combined horse and rider abilities as the pair must traverse obstacles as quickly and carefully as possible. Bennett said the Jumper Division is one of her favorite events. “It’s really cool because the obstacles are always in different places,” Lockfeld said. “You always have to figure out how you’re going to move across.”
Family hobbies encouraged Emily Wilde (junior), a Florida native, to participate in barrel racing since early childhood. Wilde and her family constantly attended rodeo shows, and those horse events inspired them to barrel race in their backyard in Tampa. “You have to make yourself move around [the barrels] as fast as you can,” Wilde said. “I like the geometry of it even though I have never liked mathematics.”
Wilde said she loves the sport for the rush and thrill that comes from its fast pace. “I like that it is exhilarating and fast. I have always had a really good time with it, and I have always liked horseback riding.” Though never having competed in an organized match, she would be delighted to.
However, she doubts that she will compete in an equestrian club starting at Occidental. She cited reasons such as safety concerns and equipment availability as possible hindrances for the founding of an equestrian club. “I don’t think it would be a good idea,” Wilde said. “Transportation and facilities would be difficult to use.”
For over a decade, Emma Gerch (first-year) has engaged in a fast paced choreography known as Irish Dance since she saw the famous film “Riverdance.” After asking anybody within earshot for lessons, she located an Irish Dancing school nearby her house. After years of practicing, she has found her niche in the grueling sport.
“It’s pretty intense, it’s a competitive sport and an individual thing,” she said.
Irish Dancing competitions are composed of two differing classifications where participants earn points in a method similar to swim meets, first place earning the most points and each proceeding scorer receiving fewer points to the team total. “There’s soft shoe where we wear shoes that are leather and lace up, then there’s hard shoe where we wear shoes similar to tap shoes,” said Gerch. She gushes her love for Irish Dance because of the dance’s fast pace. Gerch individually reached the national regional championships of Irish Dance once before coming to Occidental.
Though most of her Irish Dancing endeavors took place in her native Minnesota, Gerch is optimistic about bringing Irish Dancing to Occidental. Though she does not know of any other students that engage in Irish Dance, she hopes to bring attention through the next Dance Production show. “What I’m trying to do is be a choreographer for Dance Pro in the fall and I’m excited about that,” Gerch said. “I’m already thinking about my choreography.”
Alison Lockfeld (junior) has been performing with her circus troupe throughout California since she was 15 years old. Currently abroad in
Switzerland, Lockfeld has engaged in circus events since she first learned how to tumble in preschool. She has gone on to excel at juggling a double life as a circus entertainer and student of psychology. Though she can trapeze, her specialty is the aerial rope or corde lisse, and she taught herself how to perform on the tightrope at the age of 10.
Her circus lifestyle has brought her to the Palladium with music group Earth, Wind and Fire and to the prestigious Choreographer’s Ball. She also teaches classes from time to time at the Kinetic Theory Circus Arts in Los Angeles.
Lockfeld also loves to practice on campus when time permits, and more than one student has seen her rigging line in front of Haines Hall.
“I have a rope of my own and a rigging line,” Lockfeld said. “Sometimes I’ll rig my rope outside and practice at Oxy.”
Despite her prestige and renowned abilities, she still has not been able to perform for the college. Time restraints and miscommunication have prevented her from showing her many circus talents for students. “I always have people from Programming board ask if I would like to perform, and I always say ‘Yes I would love too!’ but it never works out,” Lockfeld said. “I would like to.”
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