ANTALYA, Turkey. – USA return from the Hyundai Archery World Cup Stage 3 with six medals, including recurve women’s team gold for the first time since 2015 and for only the second time ever.
In defeating Italy 6-2 on Sunday, the trio of Catalina GNoriega, Casey Kaufhold and Jennifer Mucino became the first victorious recurve women’s team since LaNola Pritchard, Mackenzie Brown and Khatuna Lorig took gold in Wroclaw, Poland 10 years ago.
Seeded four, the Olympians from 2024 overcame hosts Turkey (6-2), India (5-1) and then top seeds Korea (5-4) via a dramatic shoot-off, to set up the decider with Italy. The same three took silver at World Cup Stage 1 in Florida in April. That was a first World Cup medal for the recurve women's team in eight years.
Kaufhold also took individual bronze, only denied a shot at the gold via a shoot-off loss in the semifinals to eventual silver medalist An San (KOR).
There was compound mixed team gold for Curtis Broadnax and Alexis Ruiz. The second seeds dismantled Germany in the gold medal match, winning 166-157. Their path to gold involved wins over Slovakia, Italy and Turkey, with the latter being as a result of a shoot-off. Broadnax had a hugely impressive qualification in compound men, finishing level on points with top seed Mathias Fullerton (DEN). Broadnax was seeded two due to Fullerton shooting one more X.
As part of a series of tests carried out by World Archery, Stage 3 of the 2025 World Cup had in place a new scoring system, with the X-ring worth 11 points rather than 10.
The other team medal came earlier in the competition for the compound women’s team. As they did in Stage 1, the team of Olivia Dean, Alexis Ruiz and Abigail Winterton claimed bronze medal with a 239-238 win over India.
Ruiz bagged three medals in all. Along with compound mixed team gold and compound women’s team bronze, she also won individual bronze in compound women. The 25-year-old’s success means the USA has a compound women’s medal from each of the first three World Cup stages, following silvers for Olivia Dean and Carson Krahe in Florida and Shanghai.
There was also individual glory for Nick Kappers. Kappers, the 11th seed, won silver in compound men, edged 157-154 in the gold medal match by Nicolas Girard (FRA). James Lutz finished fifth, the same spot occupied by Brady Ellison in recurve men.
Ellison and Krahe will be in Indiana this week to compete in the 2025 USA Archery Field Nationals, which are again at the Koteewi Archery Range in Noblesville. Practice takes place on Friday, with the first of two days of competition beginning on Saturday.
Remaining World Cup events:
Stage 4: Madrid, Spain – July 8-13
World Cup Final: Nanjing, China – October 17-19
