DUBLIN, Ohio – Medals were won and masterclasses given on Saturday as standards were set and bars raised on a day of high quality archery at the 2024 Rebel Gear Buckeye Classic, the fourth and final event in the USAT Qualifier Series.
Maggie Brensinger (above) bettered her own barebow U21 women’s world record score (pending official verification) by eight points with a score of 628. That total was also enough to have her seeded number one in the barebow seniors division heading into Sunday morning’s elimination rounds.
Liko Arreola’s (pictured below) outstanding score of 711 broke the senior, U21 and U18 national best in compound women, again pending official verification. She leads an impressive array of talent as the top seed, ahead of Alexis Ruiz (707), Tanja Gellenthien (703), Abigail Winterton, Olivia Dean, Madison Cox and Bella Otter. Gellenthien is competing at the Buckeye Classic, just three weeks away from becoming a mom for the first time!
Meanwhile, in compound men, James Lutz registered a new personal best, racking up 717 points, closely followed by Mathias Fullerton (715) and Sawyer Sullivan (712).
Familiar names set the pace in the recurve men division, with Jack Williams – aiming for his third USAT Qualifier Series victory of the year – the number one seed, ahead of teenager Christian Stoddard, who is having himself quite the year, and defending champion Trenton Cowles.
Sixteen-year-old Akshara Vijay emerged as the top seed in the recurve women, scoring 651 to Alexandria Zuleta-Visser’s 649. Despite being minus Olympians Catalina GNoriega, Casey Kaufhold and Jennifer Mucino-Fernandez, the field remains incredibly strong, with impressive showings from the likes of Gabrielle Sasai, Savannah Vanderwier, Cham Chung and Jordan Marie Meiners.
The Way brothers, Nick and Brian, are third and fourth seeds in barebow men after Saturday’s qualification. Matt Hudson finished 12 points clear of the field as top seed.
Ted Holland posted the best score in recurve 50+ men, a solid 20 points ahead of Tom Stevenson, whose season has been hampered by injury.
Things were a little closer in recurve 50+ women, as the top three seeds were split by just five points. Jamie McCarrison is followed by Janis Grellner and Melissa McAvoy.
Richard Burkett Jr’s score of 676 in the compound 50+ men was good enough for second, behind George Ryals IV, but only placed him third in a strong compound open men’s division, led by Douglas Godfrey Jr and Kyle Tremblay (CAN).
Wendy Gardner is top seed in the compound open women, having managed 652, a score which also put her as third seed in the compound 50+ women category.
Runner-up in last year’s barebow senior men’s final, Rick Stonebraker, will be the man to chase in the barebow 50+ division, while Cheri Gandy appears keen to hold onto her title as she posted the best score in qualification in the barebow 50+ women.
The U18 and U21 medalists were determined on Saturday afternoon, among them the Puryear sisters, Madalynn and Delana. Madalynn took gold in the fixed pins U21 women, while younger sibling Delana settled for silver in fixed pins U18 women.
In the main, the top seeds justified their ranking, with Patrick Nielsen (recurve U21 men), Owen Frohmader (compound U21 men), Dewey Hathaway (compound U18 men), Taylor Miller (compound U18 women), Ethan Mitchell (barebow U21 men), Ava Jones (barebow U18 women), Hunter Stevens (fixed pins U21 men), David Fightmaster (fixed pins U18 men) and Audrey Overton (fixed pins U18 women) going on to take gold.
Special mention must go to Samuel Hilliard, who finished fourth in the fixed pins U18 men. He also competed at last week’s WIAWIS USA Archery JOAD Target Nationals & JOAD U.S. Open. Attending events on a regular basis is a little more tricky these days as the family now live just outside Venice in Italy!
In the recurve U18 women, Yeshaswini Tati made the gold medal match as the 13th seed and took second seed Ye-eun Whang to a one arrow shootoff. Whang emerged triumphant.
And Chanyoung Mun is an archer on a roll. He followed success at JOAD Target Nationals & JOAD U.S. Open with gold in the recurve U18 men.
The 2024 Rebel Gear Buckeye Classic concludes on Sunday. Elimination matches will get proceedings underway. The senior gold medal matches in compound, barebow and recurve will then be broadcast live on USA Archery’s Facebook and You Tube channel from 2pm ET.
Keep up to date with latest scores and results on BetweenEnds. There will also be photos at the end of each session.
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