Best friends Goodwin and O’Sullivan prepare for Div. 1 athletics

John Shimer

— Come this fall two best friends from West Newbury, Amber Goodwin and Haley O’Sullivan, will look to make their mark in Division 1 athletics in their respective sports.
Goodwin, a Pentucket graduate, will compete on the equestrian team at Texas A&M, while O’Sullivan, a Central Catholic grad and a great equestrian in her own right, will run track at Columbia University starting in the winter.
The two friends first met riding at Springtide Farm in Boxford under the tutelage of trainer Kathy Borylo. Neither one has owned a horse over the years, choosing instead to lease because of expenses.
As a result of riding several different horses over the years, the duo have become extremely skilled at breaking down and toning up horses that come into their barn that were rough around the edges, Borylo said.
“Our younger riders look up to the older kids, and now Amber and Haley are those girls,” said Borylo. “When I need someone to help tune up a horse, they are the first people I look to.”
Borylo said each girl has worked extremely hard to get to the school they are attending this fall. She said it was a tremendous achievement that each got into virtually every school they applied to.
“They are both responsible, reliable, and extremely focused young women driven by great work ethics,” said Borylo. “Each of them has qualified for some of the major horse shows in the area, including the Mass. Finals and the New England finals, and finished in the top three of those shows. For Amber, that was a main goal because it helped her get noticed in the recruiting process.”
As standout riders, each considered riding at school, but only Goodwin was able to find a school with the right combination of a scholarship package that included a barn with safe facilities.
“Out of the three schools I was considering — Auburn, Georgia and Texas A&M — the Aggies gave me the best offer; a scholarship in my major, animal science, in which I would only have to pay the equivalent of an in-state student’s tuition,” Goodwin said.
“Because of my height, and especially my long legs, the coach said it would be best for me to start off competing strictly in the flat face phase of hunter classics equitation in order to make the team, so that’s what I am concentrating on now.”
O’Sullivan relied more on her other athletic accomplishments in track when picking a school. The prospect of a scholarship and the opportunity to run in the Ivy League was too much to pass up.
“Nearly all of the club team barns I was looking at weren’t up to snuff as far as the safety conditions in their facilities, and there wasn’t any scholarship money,” said the former Merrimack Valley runner of the year. “The Ivy Leagues don’t have athletic scholarships, but Columbia still wanted me enough that they offered me a great financial package as well as the chance to compete on the track team.”
In addition to the rigorous academic schedule O’Sullivan will face, she also has the tough task of overtaking one of the top three 400-meter hurdlers in the Ivy League, each held last year by a Columbia runner.
“The 400m hurdles will be a new experience for me after four years of running the 300m hurdles in high school,” said O’Sullivan.
O’Sullivan’s rugged summer training includes running up the steep Meetinghouse Hill in West Newbury seven times on Thursdays.
“It’s a lot harder, and I have been dying during the last 100m when I have stretched it out,” she said. “I think things will work themselves out, though, because I have put in a lot of hard work this summer.”
John Shimer is a sports writer for the Newburyport News. You can e-mail him at sports@eagletribune.com.

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