Who Was on the US Squad?

[lbm@ici.net]

This has been one source of confusion.  This is taken from the
USET web page story on the race and confirms what Stephanie just
posted:

 "Pending official results, the USET captured the silver medal...
 Riding on the USET squad were the 1997 Individual Gold Medalist
 at the Pan American Endurance Championship in Bend, OR, Shirley Delsart
 of Kensington, CA and her KJ Destination; 1997 Pan American Endurance
 Championship fourth placed individual, Ona Lawrence of Dale Estacada, OR,
 and her RAA Crusader; Wendy Merendini of Ridgecrest, CA, and her
 Fire Mr. Flikka; and Darla Westlake of Dexter, OR, and her MC Rams Z."

So, as Potato said, neither Valerie or Danielle were on the 4-member
US team, and therefore despite finishing first and sixth, the US came
away with only the team silver.  Let me see, they've won the last two
world championships and they were not put on the official team?  Now
that is peculiar indeed!  There was a lot of second guessing about who
got selected to the team in the first place, and now this?  I wonder if
they *wanted* to be on the team?  (Maybe they didn't want to because
it had implications for how the purse would have had to be distributed?)
Or could the US decision-makers really have decided to write off their
experience in favor of other factors?

Yet another mystery...

Linda B. Merims
lbm@ici.net
Massachusetts, USA