SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – It proved quite the week for Jennifer Mucino at the Betty and Bobby Allison Sports Town as she departed with three gold medals and capped one of the finest domestic outdoor seasons of her career.
Starting with victory on Wednesday in the inaugural USAT Series Final, Mucino added Target Nationals on Friday and then the U.S. Open title on Saturday to her impressive list of accomplishments in 2026.
The 23-year-old arrived in Springfield having won the previous three events on the USAT Qualifier Series – the Easton Foundations Salt Lake Summit, Easton Foundations SoCal Showdown and the Rebel Gear Buckeye Classic.
Taking second spot on each occasion this week was Catalina GNoriega, including under the sweltering Springfield sun on Saturday afternoon when Mucino triumphed 6-2 in recurve women.
Brady Ellison gave a celebratory pump of the fist as he secured victory against Nicholas D’Amour in the U.S. Open, 24 hours after his international teammate had been crowned national champion.
Olivia Dean added the U.S. Open title to the USAT Series Final gold she claimed earlier in the week in compound women but there was no repeat for Ava Jones in barebow women. Jones – like Mucino – was striving for a hat-trick of titles having also taken top spot in Target Nationals, but her run of success was halted by 16-year-old Medina Otajagic.
Otajagic was one of two U.S. Open winners to have their mom in the coach’s box. The other was 19-year-old Dewey Hathaway who defeated Stephan Hansen 146-144 in compound men.
Brian Way took his third silver medal of the week as Michael Weaver proved too strong in their barebow men’s match in the U.S. Open. The 28-year-old Weaver defeated top seed Robby Weissinger in the semifinals 6-0 before overcoming Way 7-1 to take gold.
Mark Hainline (recurve 50+ men), Hye Youn Park (recurve 50+ women), Kenneth Brunko (compound 50+ men) and Jason Tabansky (W1 Open) were others to capture both the Target Nationals and U.S. Open titles. Hainline, Park and Ava Jones also collected gold in Team Rounds competition on Friday afternoon.
There is a full set of results from Springfield at BetweenEnds, including those from both Target Nationals and U.S. Open, while photos from the event can be found here.
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