DUBLIN, Ohio – The 2020 archery season has faced event cancellations and postponements, but the first United States Archery Team Qualifier Series event of the year is finally in the books and it was a huge success. Around 250 archers gathered for a weekend of competition in challenging conditions, but for today’s youth elimination matches, the weather was absolutely beautiful and perfect. Amidst a lot of great talent and outstanding performances, several local archers celebrated big podium finishes.
ACE Archers, the host club of the Buckeye Classic, put on a smooth event in a gorgeous venue that has become a national favorite for many archers over the past few years. Makenna Proctor was on the field all weekend from sunrise to sunset, volunteering with temperature and health safety checks, field crew, finding lost arrows, and competing in the cadet compound women’s division. She pulled off the top spot in qualification and smoked her way through today’s matches to clinch to gold over Makenzie Weatherspoon.
“Honestly it was a lot of fun, it was really tough, obviously until today the weather conditions were not easy,” shared Proctor. On working the event and competing, she added: “a lot of early mornings, getting here at 6am and a lot of late nights, but I’ve practiced a lot, I have endurance and I knew I just needed good shots. Doing this is what I love.”
In the largest division on the field, the recurve cadet men, Doheyon Kim and Andrew Yoo claimed gold and silver, while ACE archer Daniel Mueller upset top seed William Lee for the bronze in a spectacular match where he shot three sets of perfect 30s.
Mueller shared: “That was exhausting. There’s a lot of work that goes into running these tournaments. I’m glad that I’m able to work with my team and they’ve helped to their fullest capabilities. This is my first USAT podium and it feels unreal, to be honest. Coming off of the tough weather yesterday, I’m really glad that I was able to pull it together for the win today.”
ACE Archers’ Ethan Myers also climbed the podium winning cadet junior men’s silver behind champion, Seth Trahan, while Kyle Coffey claimed bronze. Local up and comer Allison McGuian had a podium finish for ACE, winning bronze for the recurve junior women and climbing the podium with champion Valerie Wang and silver medalist Isabella Frederick.
Also notable, in yesterday’s senior and masters finals, ACE archer Dan Jasa won the compound senior men’s bronze, Ohio native and Olympic medalist Jacob Wukie claimed recurve senior men’s silver and Ohio local Linda Klosterman finished with bronze for compound masters women.
After a strong qualification, Cole Zeug was victorious for the compound cadet men, winning gold over Isaac Sullivan, while Sawyer Sullivan claimed bronze. Kinley Hetletved won the compound junior women’s title in a blowout final with top seed Courtney Langley and Kennedy Sumpter won bronze.
Emma Kim and Brianna Laux went one and two in qualification and on today’s podium for the recurve cadet women while Alyssa Artz won bronze. After very close finals matches for the recurve junior men, Carter Merchant won the gold over Jordan Fong and Timothy Westfal took bronze over RED program teammate Mason Moxley.
Complete results from this weekend’s events are available on Between Ends. Check out our online photo gallery and join the conversation this weekend with #BuckeyeClassic.
< Back to All News
