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USA Archery News

April 18, 2016

Quick Quotes from Qualification at Olympic Trials Second Stage

CHULA VISTA, California - The second nomination shoot for the 2016 U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Archery kicked off with two 72-arrow ranking rounds. The morning was completed in almost record time with beautiful weather, but the afternoon was a challenge for many of the archers with heavy winds and hot sun. The top 16 archers, who will begin Round Robin matches tomorrow morning, shared their takeaways from the day:

Brady Ellison (Globe, Arizona): "Maximum effort was required today and that's what I did. We had a beautiful, beautiful first half - a lot of us were able to shoot a good score; I shot a really good score. The second half was tough, it was windy, but I fought through it and got more bonus points and jumped into a fight for first place going into the rest of the tournament."
National Head Coach KiSik Lee: "It would have been nice if there wasn't as much wind today, but competition is competition. I think the archers are trying really hard and that's what I like to see; they're dedicated."
Ariel Gibilaro (North Branford, Connecticut): "My goal is to shoot awesome tomorrow."
Ariel's father Noel Gibilaro: "It's fantastic to be here, I'm not nervous, just excited and absolutely proud of my daughter."
Meghan Collins (High Springs, Florida): "It's been an amazing experience just being here and knowing I can compete against people who train as their job, so it's amazing just knowing I can do it."
Jake Kaminski (Gainesville, Florida): "I almost shot a PB this morning until I made one mistake, but it was still good enough for me to feel good about it and have a confidence boost."
Collin Klimitchek (Victoria, Texas): "If you have bad shots, don't get down on yourself. I did that on a couple of shots and it didn't help. On the shots where I could have a confident hold-off, even if it didn't go where I wanted it to, if I could focus on what I needed to improve on, I could make it better and I ended up having a pretty decent day."
Sean McLaughlin (West Chester, Ohio): "Stay aggressive."
Easton Foundations' Nick Kale: "We had good weather in the morning, kinda rough this afternoon, it'll be interesting to see how everything ends up."
Anna Miscione (Ramona, California): "Be confident."
Jacob Wukie (Fremont, Ohio): "Competition is stiff. It helps having been through several Trials before and knowing what the process is like to some extent, even though it's a new format. On the other hand, the level of competition has increased so much over the last four years and it makes it very competitive. You give it all you've got, everybody else does too and you see where you end up."
Heather Koehl (Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin): "I'm happy about today, I'm going to take that into tomorrow."
Zach Garrett (Wellington, Missouri): "I feel like I'm miles ahead of where I was last year mentally, which was really encouraging, but I still think that I could have done better. My first half was not good, my second half was pretty good, really good compared to the field, so I'm pleased with that - I put myself in a good position for the rest of the event."
Lauren Clamon (Palestine, Texas): "Today was a bit frustrating but I'm going to reset because I'm pre-disastered for tomorrow."
Daniel Schuller (Lancaster, Pennsylvania): "I need to work on timing and especially shooting decisions in the wind."
Coach Diane Watson: "It was an awesome day for shooting."
Matthew Requa (Houston, Texas): "Focus on where you want the shot to go, not on your dot or your bow, just focus on where you want your shot to go and make good shots."
Karissa Yamaguchi (Phoenix, Arizona): "I'm feeling good about how I shot today. I shot my plan about 99% of the time."
Hye Youn Park (Cupertino, California): "Just shoot."
Coach Mel Nichols: "Our archers are learning how to shoot in the wind really well and they're starting to handle it better than they did at the first nomination shoot, so that's good."
Jeremiah Cusick (Scandia, Minnesota): "It would have been nice to have time travel powers today so I could have gone to the beach half way through the day and cleared my head. It's a new day tomorrow though and it all starts over again, keep your head up."
Lori Cieslinski (Howell, Michigan): "The wind was fun. My morning was awesome, I'd like to do that over!"
Ryan Fortenberry (Bulverde, Texas): "I'm really glad to be here!"
Madison Eich (Brier, Washington): "I had a decent start, could've finished better."
Daniel McLaughlin (West Chester, Ohio): "Today was full of ups and downs, but I feel like I handled every challenge in the best way that I know how, and I am ready for the rest of the week."
Brian Bullis Jr. (Glendale, Arizona): "If I could have had any super power on the field today, I would want to be able to only shoot 10s."
Erin Mickelberry (Bothell, Washington): "Depend on your coach and shoot strong."
Nathan Yamaguchi (Phoenix, Arizona): "I wish I'd been judging the wind a little better, I made some good shots that just got blown off at the last second which was a little unfortunate, but tomorrow's another day and I had a great time shooting on target with Jeremiah Cusick."
Women's Head Coach Guy Krueger: "The athletes performed well in challenging conditions, but we still have work to do to be ready for the World Cup in Turkey."
Khatuna Lorig (West Hollywood, California): "Go Khatuna!"
Christine Kim (Cerritos, California)'s coach, Josh Smith: "Archery's hard."
Coach Hilary Hirsch-Ascani: "I'm feeling confident and looking forward to tomorrow."