LAS VEGAS, Nevada – The inaugural Indoor World Series wrapped tonight with heated matches for the top archers following events from Luxembourg to Macau and France. With the international tour coming to a stop in Vegas, the U.S. archers shot proudly on home soil for top honors.
Taking home the win in the compound men’s division was Kris Schaff with a stellar 149-146 win – “It feels good. I’ve made the indoor world cup finals the last three years now; ended up taking 4th the first time, last year I lost on the big stage to Jesse [Broadwater] where I didn’t shoot well, and then to actually put a good finals round together, it feels great. It’s a good confidence booster going into tomorrow – even though I’m out of it, there’s still the lucky dog or the chance to shoot a lot of Xs and come home with some money.”
Braden Gellenthien finished with the bronze after cleaning two perfect 150s and then falling short with a 149-150 in the semifinals to Denmark’s Stephan Hansen. Another 149 gave him the final victory over the Netherlands’ Mike Schloesser.
Brady Ellison also came away with silver for the recurve men after scoring 149, 149 and 150 over three five-set matches in preliminary rounds before ending the gold final in a shoot off with a nine to the Netherlands’ Steve Wijler’s ten.
“I shot exactly how I needed to and exactly how I wanted to in order to get to that final match,” shared Ellison. “Some old habits kind of crept in during that final match but I could feel it, I know what I need to work on. I’m super excited with tonight’s performance, I definitely had a lot of chances to go out there and win it – I just didn’t, but the changes I’ve made are doing absolutely awesome and really looking forward to moving with this and going forward.”
On the recurve women’s field, 14-year-old Casey Kaufhold made her senior Finals debut, crushing perfect 10 shoot off wins in her first two matches before falling 6-4 in the semifinals, despite never shooting lower than a 29.
On finishing fourth after a knockout performance in qualifying for the Final, Kaufhold commented: “It was really cool to be a part of this and come in as part of the top three in qualification and I shot really well. I made it to the bronze medal match and shot a 148 out of 150 and my opponent from Korea shot a 149, so I shot great, she just shot better and I’m really happy with how I did. It was a great experience and I know I’ll take it to heart and turn it into something even better next time.”
Kaufhold added that the experience was made sweeter by sharing it with family and friends on home soil: “It was really cool having some of my JOAD teammates here to watch me and it was so great having so much support. It helped me a lot throughout all my shoot offs.”
Paige Pearce also finished fourth for the compound women after a quarterfinal win over U.S. teammate Cassidy Cox.
For complete results from the Indoor World Series Finals, visit www.worldarchery.org.
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