NEWBERRY, Florida - The sun was out for the second half of U.S. National Outdoor Collegiate Championships and team rounds and competition was hot!
The compound women's division saw surprise upsets as Texas A&M finished with bronze and Columbia University and Michigan State University took silver and gold respectively. Columbia's first ever back to back national champion title in any team category was major excitement for the team.
Sophia Strachan commented: "This is so exciting. We worked really hard and practiced a lot. I'm a sophomore, so I would like to go for all four. We're a young team as a sophomore and two first-years. We have really good team vibes and had a ton of fun out there today; we miss our upper classmen but we put together a strong team and had the best time!"
Georgia Southern also climbed from third to win gold in the compound men's division over 5th seed Hocking College in a 222-217 final victory. Top seed Texas A&M took the bronze.
On the barebow field the top two men's seeds duked it out for gold with UC San Diego taking the 6-0 shut out win. In the bronze final, 5th seed Lamar University won a 6-2 victory over 6th seed UC Davis after an exciting bracket shakeup.
UC San Diego's Kelton Cheng shared: "We haven't gotten to gold in a while, so it feels good to get it for our final year. All three of us were actually graduating, so finishing it off with a gold is awesome. We shot as if it were practice and did everything we knew how to do. We had a rough start but then we picked it up and finished with a really good end."
Texas A&M took a strong 6-2 final win in the recurve men's division over UC San Diego - a surprise opponent for the gold medal match. First year student Gus Braendle helped the team shoot their way to victory: "We've been training for the past couple of weeks; everyone's been working together and having team practices, which really prepared us for the competition today and it paid off."
On having the loudest cheering team on the field, Braendle added: "It helps amp us up and shows everyone we're here to make an impact. Before college I mainly shot individually so it's nice to feel so supported.
A&M aggies swept the recurve field, also taking gold in the recurve women's division over Columbia University in a 6-2 win while Emannuel College walked away with bronze over James Madison University.
Hocking College won their first barebow women's national title in a 6-0 shut out over UC Davis as Emmanuel College finished with the bronze.
In the bowhunter division, the brackets stood as top two seeds Texas A&M and Emmanuel College went gold and silver and Pennsylvania College of Technology finished with bronze over Hocking College. The two bowhunter women's teams also finished as they qualified with Texas A&M taking a 203-184 victory over James Madison University.
Competition resumes tomorrow with individual elimination matches and concludes tomorrow evening with a special Awards Banquet. More information on the banquet is available here. Complete results from the event and live scores are available on USA Archery's dedicated Live Results page. Photos each day are posted to USA Archery's photo site, and make sure to follow USA Archery on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for more from the event.
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