DUBLIN, Ohio - The Buckeye Classic qualification day featured the most ideal conditions for the morning qualification session, followed by wind and a brief weather delay in the afternoon session as archers duked it out on the field for a last chance at U.S. Archery Team national ranking points for this season.
Braden Gellenthien shot a world record 718 and set the bar very high at last month's U.S. National Target Championships, but it was Paul Tedford who finished eliminations with the silver medal behind Tate Morgan.
Today, Gellenthien shot a 712, and felt it was good enough for the win, but Tedford cleaned house a solid 716 while Morgan took the win on the X count with 37 Xs. Tedford commented: That's a really high score for me, actually it's my highest score ever, even in practice. I tried to go into it with the right mindset: I know that if you qualify well today you get a good bracket for tomorrow. A lot of people think that qualification day doesn't really matter, but it does matter to a point."
He added: "In practice I don't always focus on shooting 72 arrows. I shoot 3 arrow matches against myself and just try to prepare for everything. I focus on only one thing, so today I only focused on letting my dot float in the middle. I wasn't focusing on my release, there's 50 different things we can keep our minds on when we're shooting, so it helps me to just focus on one."
"Paul Tedford really ripped it up today, it was a great effort by him, he's a fresh talent, he's really gonna knock some heads continually," added Steve Anderson.
Danielle Park, led the female cadet division: "All I wanted to do today was make good shots, and that's what I did. I focused on myself, I didn't want to be distracted by scores or anything. I'm really glad I was able to do that this tournament."
Scott Rissinger was the top scorer for the recurve master men's division. Rissinger is a cancer survivor who just returned to the USAT scene after a long absence. "I got back into shooting in 2012," he shared. "My whole mindset is that if I thought like I do now, 20 years ago, I'd have my gold medal. Because I don't think about scores now, I just shoot my bow, I don't know who does what, I just enjoy it. I came out here because I coach one of the archers who is competing and just thought I'd shoot for fun."
Competition resumes tomorrow with elimination matches. To follow live scores and complete results click here. For more, follow USA Archery on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
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