DARRINGTON, Washington - The 2017 U.S. National Field Championships concluded today with competition at 24 targets of marked distances after shooting at 24 unmarked targets yesterday. Today's course featured intense inclines and beautiful views at the Darrington Archers range.
For the recurve and barebow archers, this weekend's competition doubled as the World Games - U.S. Team Trials for the multi-sport tournament in Poland later this summer. Top finishers John Demmer III (Kingsley, Pennsylvania), Heather Koehl (Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin), Jenifer Stoner (Lorton, Virginia), and Olympians Brady Ellison (Globe, Arizona) and Vic Wunderle (San Antonio, Texas) were named to the team.
The U.S. World Games compound squad will be comprised of Kris Schaff (Billings, Montana), Reo Wilde (Pocatello, Idaho), Lexi Keller (Omro, Wisconsin) and Cassidy Cox (Albuquerque, New Mexico) who were also nominated to the team after a two-part qualification at the AAE Arizona Cup and the Easton Foundations' Gator Cup as compound archers compete in the target events at the World Games instead of field events.
With the largest division this weekend, John Demmer III took another National Champion title with a 47-point margin over the rest of the barebow men's field. Demmer commented: "The course today was a lot more interesting, we had a lot more hills, which is always a lot of fun. It was not easy, but it was a lot more fun and it's always fun to shoot with new people. I've shot with John Dillinger and Ben Rogers several times in the past, but I shot with Sean Snyder for the first time today and we all had a nice time." Demmer, who's grandmother was born in Poland, is excited about the chance to compete at the Poland World Games this summer and to explore some of his family's history.
Female recurve National Champion Heather Koehl agreed about the competition this weekend: "I thought it was a nice course this weekend, it was definitely more challenging than it's been the last couple of years; we had a lot more ups and downs. I actually had to do a bit of cutting on some of the shots and that was really cool to see. I had a couple of bad targets with the shorter shots but made up for it on some of the quad targets, so that was really nice."
Looking forward to the World Games, Koehl added: "This is good prep for the World Games; Europe really tries to make the courses challenging and difficult and this is our best chance of the year to get ready for that. The World Games is a really fun event and there are a lot of nontraditional sports; it's cool to be able to introduce everyone to field archery and give them a taste of the different things we do in this sport."
Complete results from the competition can be found here. For more, follow USA Archery on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
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