EAGLE LAKE, Texas - After two days of challenging field archery shots at Blaschke Exotic Deer Ranch, USA Archery has crowned its National Field Champions, and the winners in the barebow, recurve and compound categories should come as no surprise to archery fans.
Following yesterday's unmarked distances, competitors shot 24 targets at marked yardages today. While marked yardage shooting removed a bit of the guesswork, it still required archers to manage some dramatic angles on today's course, with challenging uphill and downhill shots being the standard on field archery courses.
Rebecca Nelson-Harris and Ben Rogers both clinched the championship titles in the barebow senior women's and senior men's categories, respectively, with Nelson-Harris hitting a 584 and Rogers posting a solid 641 for the win.
In the recurve senior men's and women's groups, Olympic medalist Brady Ellison climbed atop the podium, joined by U.S. Olympic Team Alternate Heather Koehl; Ellison shot a strong 734 to lead a pack that included three other Olympians and other veteran competitors. Koehl took her win with a 21-point margin over the other women in her category.
Jesse Broadwater, coming off a top three finish at the World Archery Championships - U.S. Team Trials, delivered another winning performance in the compound senior men's group today, staying atop a tough field to finish with an 835. Jamie Van Natta shot a solid 787 to win the compound senior women's title, leading her group by a margin of 57 points.
Youth champions included Maxwell Hartman, Brooke Vandenbergh, Josef Fischer, Kathryn Fischer, Ryland Hartman, Monica Nevarez, Jeramy Minor, Miriam Trafford, Jake Overbeck, William Witt, Alex Wu, Allison Magera, Hardy Trafford, Coltin Lopez, Emily Fischer, Justin Dixon and Benjamin Chu.
In the masters categories, experienced archers dominated, with favorites Skip Trafford, Donny Hughes and David Wearne winning the championship titles in the male barebow, compound and recurve masters' categories respectively. Trafford earned his hardware with a 505, while Hughes put up a 666 and Wearne a 580 to clinch their medals.
Complete results can be found by clicking here; photos by Ron Carmichael and
Michael Hojnacki can be seen on USA Archery's Facebook page.
Updated June 11 to correct the accidental omission of Alex Wu's name in the list of youth champions.
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