BARCELONETA, Puerto Rico - After a week of exciting head to head matches, the Copa Juan Enrique Barrios world ranking event and para world ranking event concluded today with gold finals. Nearly two dozen U.S. archers stood on the individual podiums after qualification on Monday, and the compound open men's team of Kevin Polish, Benjamin Thompson and Andre Shelby swept the podium and shattered the world record with their combined qualification score of 2,063.
In the team competition, the compound open men's trio had a bye into the gold final where they took a strong win 221-205 over Canada. In the compound men's event, Polish and Thompson were still two of the three highest U.S. qualifiers and teamed up with Christopher Schnur for a second-place seed and a silver medal finish in a very close 228-227 final match with Puerto Rico.
Polish and Thompson also went first and second in the compound open men's individual finals facing each other in the last match with a competitive 146-143 score. In the compound men's individual finals, 17th seed Gabe Marcozzi shook the brackets, upsetting 9th seed and teammate Andre Shelby in the quarterfinal and advancing to win bronze. Thompson, who had qualified 6th, also climbed the brackets to finish with the silver.
"This is a big win for me personally," shared Marcozzi. "This is my first able body international medal. I shot strong all day and shot a new personal best for a match. IT's a big confidence booster going into outdoor season and with world championships coming up."
Isabella Bastiani was the sole U.S. compound senior women's medalist, finishing with silver to Colombia's Sara Lopez. Bastiani joined Mikey McGhee and Teresa Wallace in the team round with a top seed. They fell to Guatemala in the semifinal and then tied with Great Britain in the bronze final but lost by a single point in the shoot off for the win. Bastiani and Polish joined forces for the compound mixed team event where they clinched the bronze 154-150 over Great Britain.
Jerry Shields and Charles Lear finished with gold and silver in the men's W1 competition. "It was a very good tournament," shared Lear. "I was working with a. new bow so my expectations were not met, but the future looks bright. The people of Puerto Rico are fantastic."
In the recurve open men's division, Michael Lukow and Timothy Palumbo were the top two qualifiers and ended up head-to-head for the gold. In a close match, Palumbo took the win 6-4 to clinch the gold and Lukow finished with silver. "It was a good tournament," commented Palumbo. "I had no expectations and was surprised at how well I did."
For the recurve juniors, second place men's qualifier Matthew Nofel came back with a decisive 6-2 win to take the gold while Karisa McAmis kept her stronghold on the women's field taking an easy 6-0 victory for gold. The U.S. recurve cadet women upset the brackets as No. 5 seed Olivia Perrego knocked out Puerto Rico's Noelie Ayala in the quarterfinal and went on to win bronze with a perfect 10 on a one-arrow shoot off. Second seed Savanna Ward clinched the gold in a tight matchup with Jomirialyz Rodriguez Maldonado. Savannah and Olivia teamed up with Ramsey Lechner in the women's team event and took a 6-2 win for gold over the team from Puerto Rico.
Ward commented: "I feel that I shot well today. The weather was great. I felt good about my shots and really enjoyed shooting with competitors from other countries."
In the compound cadet divisions, Trey McDonald was the top men's qualifier and finished with gold, while Hala Skelton and Mackenzie Kormann traded places from qualification on the finals podium as Kormann took the gold win in a close 135-133 match.
In the masters brackets, Tom and Kathleen Stevenson continued their domination over the recurve fields, both taking gold. Bonnie Haaseth and Wesley Kenneth Wilhelm both brought home the silver. Marcia Falks seeded third for the compound master women and upset the Dominican Republic's Yvel Felix 121-116 in the semifinals and went on to win gold 116-114 over top seed Iara Tejada of the Dominican Republic.
Complete results from the competition can be found here. For photos and more, follow USA Archery on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Photo by Amy Skelton.
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