SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – Forty-eight archers went into the first-ever USAT Series Final on Wednesday night and six champions emerged.
Winners included Jennifer Mucino – who won the last three events in the USAT Qualifier Series – as well as teenage barebow ace, Ava Jones, and compound world record holder James Lutz.
Mucino took gold in recurve women, defeating a spirited Catalina GNoriega. Christian Stoddard came from behind against the legendary Brady Ellison to claim the crown in recurve men.
Lutz was involved in a titanic tussle with ‘Mr Perfect’, Mike Schloesser. The first arrow from Lutz landed in the nine, followed by 14 10s as he got the better of the Dutchman 149-147.
The first winner of the evening was the archer whose victory at Easton Foundations Gator Cup back in April made her the first qualifier for the USAT Series Final, Olivia Dean. Dean defeated Tanja Gellenthien by just the one point, having at one stage enjoyed a three-point advantage. Gellenthien made for an exciting finish with two ends of 30 to wrap things up.
There were unfamiliar names in the barebow gold medal matches. Jones overcame an equipment glitch to beat Nina Lopez 6-2. Lopez was appearing on this stage for the first time and did not look out of place.
Barebow men involved Brian Way and Jim O’Shea (pictured) in the gold medal match. Way was fresh from his success at last month’s Rebel Gear Buckeye Classic but it was O’Shea, who was competing in the 50+ division last year, that proved the stronger as he enjoyed a 6-0 win.
There were surprises and shocks in the earlier rounds, none-more-so than the 7-3 win for 16-year-old Hayun Choi over Casey Kaufhold in recurve women.
And though O’Shea and Stoddard both went on to ultimately win gold, and a share of the $50,000 prize money, each had to fight through a shootoff. O’Shea saw off Daniel Parkes in the quarterfinals, while Stoddard won through against Nicholas D’Amour.
For further details of all the results, go to BetweenEnds. There are also photos from the USAT Series Final.
Next up for all of these archers is the 142nd USA Archery Target Nationals and U.S. Open. The Target Nationals take place across Thursday and Friday, with the U.S. Open rounding out the event in Springfield on Saturday.
You can follow along with all the scores at BetweenEnds, and catch photos from each day. The U.S. Open will be broadcast live on USA Archery’s YouTube channel from 2pm CT on Saturday.
