TLAXCALA, Mexico – A 24-strong U.S. team is heading to Mexico for the 2026 Pan American Championships, where they will showcase the best among barebow, compound and recurve.
With most of the U.S. team having been part of the record-breaking Easton Foundations SoCal Showdown – which finished on Sunday - it has meant a quick turnaround, swapping domestic duties for the international stage.
“We have the same team as we had last year, and we performed really well in (international) competition,” said Jennifer Mucino-Fernandez, fresh from her recurve women win at SoCal Showdown and assessing the team’s chances this week.
“Going to Mexico we have a really strong team, it’s the Pan American Championships, so the aim has to be gold.”
The recurve women’s team of Mucino-Fernandez, Catalina GNoriega and Casey Kaufhold won gold when Medellin, Colombia hosted the 2024 Pan American Championships. Kaufhold also claimed individual gold, and she will be in Mexico to defend her title.
Mucino-Fernandez is not the only U.S. archer on the Pan American Championship team who heads to Tlaxcala in form following SoCal Showdown. Olivia Martin claimed bronze in recurve women, Nicholas D’Amour took silver in recurve men, James Lutz silver in compound men, Cindy Czako silver in barebow women and Alexis Ruiz bronze in compound women.
Ruiz heads to Tlaxcala having won three gold medals two years ago when this event was previously held, which included compound women’s team. Her teammate from two years ago, Olivia Dean, will also be in Mexico.
Czako will defend her barebow women’s title, as well as barebow mixed team, which she won with Marcus Cooley. Cooley is among the four barebow men who will be competing for the U.S. at the event. He was part of the barebow men’s team to win bronze in 2024.
There will be 181 archers from 19 countries competing at the Pan American Championships, which also act as a qualifying event for next year’s Pan American Games.
Qualification begins on Wednesday, with the last match being the recurve men's gold medal contest on Sunday afternoon.
You can track the event schedule and follow all the scores and results as the USA looks to pick up where it left off two years ago. On that occasion, the U.S. archers topped the medals table with seven gold (half of those available), two silver and three bronze.
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RECURVE MEN |
RECURVE WOMEN |
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Trenton Cowles |
Catalina GNoriega |
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COMPOUND MEN |
COMPOUND WOMEN |
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Gaius Carter |
Liko Arreola |
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BAREBOW MEN |
BAREBOW WOMEN |
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Marcus Cooley |
Cindy Czako |
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