Alicen Divita (barnysphotoshop.eu)

Lexington, KY – Vaulting competition at CHIO Aachen began Friday with compulsory and technical male and female individual test. Four U.S. Vaulters were in action, and with two of three phases complete 24-year-old Alicen Divita (Redwood City, CA) is within striking distance of a top finish.

The day began with Female compulsory tests. Divita vaulted on her mother Julie Divita’s Pino del Rio to a score of 7.208. Finishing just below her in the standings were teammates Mary Garrett (Seal Beach, CA) on Renz Wolfgang’s Leon 364 and Elizabeth Ioannou vaulting on Lasse Kristensen and Emma Seely’s Jarl who finished with 7.043 and 7.026 respectively.

It was in the technical test where Divita began to show the form that earned her third place at the Krumke CVI3* two weeks ago. Her 7.294 was fourth best overall (from a field of 26) and has her sitting in fifth place with a 7.251 total score going into Saturday’s final phase of competition, the freestyle. Ioannou earned a 5.994 in her technical test and Garrett a 5.765.

Kristian Roberts, the U.S.’s only individual male vaulter earned a 5.630 compulsory score and a 6.538 technical score.

Freestyle tests begin Saturday morning at 2:30am ET with Pas de Deux competition. Individual female freestyles start at 8:30am ET and individual male freestyle tests at 11:00am ET. A live stream of the Aachen CVIO3* is available via http://www.clipmyhorse.de/en.

Complete results from Friday are available here.

Follow the U.S. Vaulting team here.