YANKTON, S.D. – After what Paige Pearce described as two of the toughest courses she had ever faced, champions were confirmed at the 2026 USA Archery Field Nationals.
Pearce – the winner of the last three World Archery Field Championships – took gold in compound women after two days of challenging archery, with one of the courses set against the stunning backdrop of the Missouri River.
“I think these are the hardest two field courses I’ve ever shot, anywhere in the world” admitted Pearce. “That’s pretty insane to say that but it was awesome.”
There was also a gold medal and national title for an archer familiar to the taste of success but relatively new to this form of the sport. Recurve women’s world number two, Casey Kaufhold, was competing at her first ever field archery event before departing for Stage #3 of the Hyundai Archery World Cup in Turkey.
Kaufhold said, “I feel like I did really well, especially for my first time. My whole goal through this was to understand that this is a learning experience and while I’m used to being one of the more experienced people on the field, and so this was different because at times I felt unprepared but the reality was I felt inexperienced (in field archery).
“I’ve been talking about doing field archery for a long time and just haven’t really made the first step to do it, so I decided to just commit, do the whole thing, shoot a few courses at home, do the Trials and see what happens.
“With field archery now included in the world rankings, I find it to be important because it’s an important ranking to me, but I also just find it fun. I had a lot of fun, it was really challenging and a very different type of challenge than target.”
Recurve men was won by five-time Olympian Brady Ellison, followed by another force in field archery, Matthew Nofel. Compound men was claimed by James Lutz, who earlier this year set a new world record of 719 in his 72-arrow qualification round at the Easton Foundations Gator Cup, emphasizing the quality of archer on show in Yankton.
And while Nicole Rasor took bronze in recurve women, husband Allen narrowly missed out. He finished fourth in recurve men after losing out on a tiebreaker with Ashton Probus. Both scored 620. Elsewhere, Savannah Nofel claimed bronze in compound women to go with husband Matthew’s silver in recurve men.
Barebow was a close-run affair in the men’s division. One point was the difference between gold and silver. Robby Weissinger became national champion with a score of 686, closely followed by Ryan Davis (685). Eighteen-year-old Ava Jones won gold in barebow women, 15 points clear of Gator Cup gold medalist, Erin Hollom.
Michael Davenport and Joella Bates successfully defended their longbow titles, while Cody Hasson and Stephanie Correa led the way in traditional men and women respectively.
There were strong showings in recurve U21, with Pierce McAdam and Abigail Kippes both convincing winners. Grady Kane’s score of 788 was good enough for gold in compound U21 men and would have earned him silver in the senior division. Christopher Fong’s score of 781 delivered silver but again a score which would have also secured a podium place in the senior category.
World Archery Youth gold medalists, Julia Cook and Khloe Markle, managed silver and bronze in compound U21 women, behind the 2026 national champion, Ella O’Brien. Jacob Olmstead edged Gabriel Urgelles to gain gold in barebow U21 men, winning by two points. Chloe Crandall – who is just 14 – was the winner of barebow U21 women by 28 points.
You can find all the scores and results from Field Nationals and 3D Nationals, with photos also available from both.
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