RICHMOND, Virginia – Competition heated up at the USA Archery Collegiate Target Nationals today with individual matches through the bronze finals – gold medal matches coming tomorrow! – and the ever-exciting, highly spirited team competition.
In fun tradition, we saw teams dress up for the team event with crazy shorts, superhero capes, face paint and more. The school cheers were loud, and a great time was had by all.
Host school James Madison University senior Thomas Miller shared: “This is my last nationals. I’ve been shooting four years, and this is one of my favorite events. It brings so many people together from across the nation. Being back here today is such a blessing. I couldn’t have asked for better weather; it’s a little hot but that’s okay, we’re just happy to be out here enjoying each other’s company.”
The individual competition saw some big upsets: University of the Cumberlands’ Hannah Moose and Lindsey Wilson College’s Natalie Brockman climbed from 13th and 11th place seeds to shoot for compound women’s gold and 18th seed Emily Dendinger of University of Pikeville will shoot against Union College’s Molly Gawedzinski for the bowhunter women’s title.
There were also archers who held strong through qualification and matchplay: top bowhunter men’s qualifiers Brandon Whitt of Kentucky Christian University and University of Pikeville’s Kirklin Newsome will shoot for gold, first seed bowhunter woman, Madison Cox won bronze for the University of the Cumberlands, and Cole Luburg ranked first and finished with barebow men’s bronze for Hocking College.
In the team competition, Texas A&M University swept the recurve titles, while Union College and University of the Cumberlands split wins in the compound and bowhunter divisions.
Cumberlands Patriots took the compound men’s team win in a heated match that came down to a two-point difference in the final few arrows against Union. Carson Sapp shared: “We’ve seen Union a couple of times, shooting mid-south conference tournaments and regionals. They got us at regionals, so it was good to see them again.”
Teammate Aaron Adams added: “This round i’s really exciting, lot of noise, a wild crowd, it’s a good time.”
Texas A&M University Aggies claimed the barebow men’s win and Lindsey Wilson College won the women’s team gold.
Competition continues tomorrow with the mixed team competition in the morning and individual finals in the afternoon. Follow scores here and visit our photo site for scenes of the action, captured by JMU’s Logan Weller.
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