Three college students with high marks, high hopes and high ideals have been named winners of Harness Tracks of America’s 2012 college scholarships.

Each recipient has harness racing family connections and each receives a $5,000 cheque toward their college education. Each of the winners has worked with harness horses and in harness racing. The winners are:

CHAD CALICE, 25, Columbus, Ohio, son of Jerry Calice, a heavy equipment operator, and Bette Jean Calice, a harness racing owner and trainer. A Straight-A graduate of the Ohio State University, Chad is a fourth-year veterinary student at Ohio State who is emphasizing his studies in equine sports medicine. Chad is a third-generation horseman who, along with his mother Bette Jean, currently has a small stable of horses that races at Tioga Downs, Vernon Downs, Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs as well as Pompano Park. For the second year in a row, Chad is the winner of the HTA June Bergstein Memorial Scholarship For Academic and Social Excellence.

LYNDSAY HAGEMEYER, 20, Clarksville, Ohio, daughter of Scott Hagemeyer, of Hagemeyer Farms, and Cindy Hagemeyer, a customer service supervisor. Lyndsay is a sophomore at the University of Cincinnati studying psychology with plans to transfer to Ohio State University where she hopes to attend veterinary school. Her great-grandfather, Maynard Hagemeyer, was the first President of Harness Horse Youth Foundation and a director of the Ohio Harness Association. Her grandfather, Mel Hagemeyer, is the general manager of Lebanon Raceway. Lyndsay is active in many aspects of harness racing, from cleaning stalls to training horses. Lyndsay is a Dean’s List scholar as well as the University of Cincinnati Psychology Student of the Year for 2011.

KATELYN WILFONG, 18, Shirley, Indiana, is the daughter of Grant Wilfong, owner of Grant Wilfong Stables, and Tracy Wilfong, a nurse. Katelyn is a fourth-generation horsewoman with ties to harness racing that began with her great grandfather, horseman George Wilfong, in the 1950s. Both her grandfather and his brother Ralph were inducted into the Indiana Standardbred Hall of Fame. A member of the National Honor Society and student council in highschool, Katelyn is following her mother’s lead by studying nursing at Purdue University but hopes to stay involved in harness racing by becoming a standardbred owner herself.

The winners were selected by HTA’s Scholarship Committee, consisting of 10 HTA directors and racing industry executives from around the country, co-chaired by former HTA president Jeffrey Smith and David Snyder of International Sound Corporation.

(HTA)