NEWBERRY, Florida - The World Archery Indoor Championships - U.S. Team Trials began today at the Easton Newberry Sports Complex. The two-day trials process featured 120 arrows of qualification today. A cut will be made to the top eight archers in each category and those archers will shoot head to head in round robin match play to determine the top three archers who will compete in Yankton, South Dakota in mid-February 2018. Qualification saw intense competition and several records were broken for great excitement!
Paige Pearce Gore (Red Bluff, California) started indoor season with a bang, taking silver and gold at the first two stages of the Indoor World Cup Series. Then with a 696 half and a 1188 total today, she broke the world record of 695 and the national record of 1182 (pending official verification), both previously held by Erika Jones for several years.
"After deciding to really try and improve my indoor game this season, I couldn't be happier with how today went!" shared Gore. "Breaking the national and world record was something I honestly didn't see as a possibility just two months ago, so it's so rewarding to see all my hard work is finally paying off! I'm so excited to see improvement, and I'm going to keep working hard for the remainder of the indoor season!"
Brady Ellison (Globe, Arizona) led the recurve men with a lights-out perfect 300 to start, and finished with an insane 1196 to break the national record. With a 299 with 28 Xs in the third quarter, Ellison led the bracket by 24 points as second place qualifier Jack Williams (Irvine, California) finished another six points clear the rest of the men.
Mackenzie Brown (Flint, Texas) also locked up a new national record for the recurve senior women with an incredible 1159 to break the previous 1156 best score. Khatuna Lorig (Denver, Colorado) posted an 1152 to hold second, over twenty points ahead of the remaining women.
"When I finished shooting today I was surprised to hear I had set a new record," shared Brown. "I am thrilled to now hold the record, and I think with how I'm currently shooting, I can put up even stronger scores. I'm looking forward to the rest of the season and to keep doing better."
The junior competition was especially heated. Cassidy Cox (Albuquerque, New Mexico) cleared the compound women's field by fifteen points, setting a new national record with a strong 1174. Then, just twelve points separated the next seven archers making the cut for round robin matches. Ethan King (London, Kentucky) led the compound junior men with an 1182, while the next three archers all scored 1179s and 1171 marked the cut to make the top eight.
Trenton Cowles (Tarzana, California) and Seth McWherter (Central City, Iowa) led the recurve junior men with 1160 and 1159 respectively and then twelve points separated the archers ranking 3rd through 7th. An 1133 put Inga Pever (Houston, Texas) over twenty points ahead of the next finisher for the recurve junior women.
Paul Tedford (Great Falls, Montana) and Tate Morgan (Billings, Montana) matched with 1193s and with matching 1190s, Braden Gellenthien (Hudson, Massachusetts) and Jesse Broadwater (Ellenton, Florida) rounded out the top four for the compound senior men.
Competition resumes tomorrow with the round robin match play for all juniors in the morning and all seniors in the afternoon. Complete results from qualification can be found here. Live results during the round robin matches tomorrow will be available here. For more, follow USA Archery on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
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