Alfred University Athletics

Jennifer (Brown) Smith is the most accomplished rider in AU equestrian team history, three times competing in the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association (IHSA) national championships.

She placed in the top eight in the country in the Open Division of the IHSA hunt seat class all three times she competed at the national level. As a freshman in 1999, she was eighth in Open Equitation on the Flat; in 2000, she was seventh in that same event; and in 2001, as a junior, she placed fourth nationally in Open Equitation Over Fences.

She qualified for the IHSA Regional Championships in Open over fences and on the flat all four years at AU and each year she qualified for the Zone championships in the Open Division. In 2000, she was second at Zones in Open on the flat and was second at Zones the following year in Open over fences. She qualified for both events at the 2001 Zone championships. In 2001, she was the Reserve High Point Rider in Region II, qualifying to compete in the Cachionne Cup Invitational at the Zones finals, where she placed sixth.

She says her greatest thrill as an AU athlete was competing at the Georgia International Horsepark in Conyers, GA, site of the Olympic equestrian competition during the 1996 Atlanta Games. Conyers hosted the IHSA Nationals in 2000, when Smith placed seventh in the national competition, and in 2001, when she placed fourth.

Smith graduated from AU in 2002 with a bachelor’s degree in communications studies, with minors in business administration and equestrian studies, and went on to earn a master’s degree in communications from Ithaca College in 2003.