NEWBERRY, Fla. – After a long day in the field, the names of the 24 archers who will represent the United States at the World Archery Youth Championships later this year are now known.
Among them will be names already familiar with this particular stage, including Christian Stoddard and Gabrielle Sasai. The pair claimed recurve U18 mixed team silver when the World Youth Championships were held in Ireland two years ago. This time around they will head to Winnipeg, Canada in August having finished top at the trials in the U21 division.
In a tale of two shoot-offs, Samantha Ensign booked her ticket to Winnipeg in recurve U21 women with a 6-5 win over Andrea Ciotinga in the seventh and final match of the round robin, which edged out Isabella Kim who was losing in a shoot-off to Eliana Son.
“Trials definitely challenged me,” began a delighted Ensign. “There were a lot of good archers on the field. All in all, I’m super grateful for the opportunity and am looking forward to representing team USA!”
The archers came through a grueling trials at the Easton Newberry Archery Center on Wednesday, starting with 72 arrow qualification in the morning, with each category then cut to the top eight for a round robin format in the afternoon.
An archer to taste disappointment two years ago, put all that behind her to secure a spot on the team. Abigail Winterton was alternate for compound U21 women in 2023, and history was close to repeating itself. A tie-breaker match was needed against Lanie Nish, with both finishing level after the round robin. Nish had beaten Winterton earlier but the disappointment felt last time appeared a motivator as Winterton came through to triumph, struggling to hold back the tears of joy as the realization struck her.
“I’ve worked my whole life for this moment and to see my dream come true was amazing,” Winterton said. “I fought hard to come back and secure my spot today and am so so excited to compete with some of my close friends representing Team USA in Canada.”
Of those making their debut, Ye-eun Whang leads a talented recurve U18 women. The AAE Arizona Cup recurve U18 women’s silver medalist is joined by Akshara Vijay – an alternate last time around – and Hailey Franzone, named Archer of the Year for 2024 in recurve U18 women by World Archery Americas.
Grady Kane was a compound U18 men’s team bronze medalist in Ireland. His experience will be key in a strong group of compound archers in the U21 division, as will Emma Kim in the recurve U21. She was part of a U21 trio in 2023 that included Olympians Casey Kaufhold and Catalina GNoriega. Another returning to the World Archery Youth Championships is Joshua Baek. This time he forms part of the recurve U21 men, having competed at U18 level previously.
Kane commented, “I felt really good leading up to this and I am super happy to have qualified for my second youth team. It truly means everything to represent Team USA on the biggest stage in the world.”
The compound U18 men of Caleb Quiocho, Brody Wonch and Suraj Nalam were the three medalists in their division at the Arizona Cup earlier this month. Liam Lee is another used to standing on the podium. He was gold medalist at the 2024 Easton Foundations SoCal Showdown in recurve U18 men.
Savannah O’Donohue was in outstanding form in compound U18 women, qualifying as the top seed and subsequently winning all seven of her round robin matches. Others to win all seven of their round robin matches were Gabrielle Sasai (recurve U21 women) and Jack Krengel (recurve U21 men).
The World Archery Youth Championships will be held August 17-24.
The results from the World Archery Youth Championships/Junior Pan Am Games U.S. Team Trials can be found on BetweenEnds. There are also photos available.
Action continues in Newberry on Thursday with the start of the 2025 Easton Foundations Gator Cup, with mixed team competition taking place in the afternoon. Photos from Gator Cup are also available.
U21 |
|
RECURVE MEN |
RECURVE WOMEN |
|
Christian Stoddard |
Gabrielle Sasai |
|
Jack Krengel |
Emma Kim |
|
Joshua Baek |
Samantha Ensign |
COMPOUND MEN |
COMPOUND WOMEN |
|
Grady Kane |
Liko Arreola |
|
Jacob Merkel |
Kaylee Gurney |
|
Zachary Neilson |
Abigail Winterton |
U18 |
|
RECURVE MEN |
RECURVE WOMEN |
|
Liam Lee |
Ye-eun Whang |
|
Carson Chan |
Akshara Vijay |
|
Jackson Miller |
Hailey Franzone |
COMPOUND MEN |
COMPOUND WOMEN |
|
Caleb Quiocho |
Savannah O'Donohue |
|
Brody Wonch |
Khloe Markle |
|
Suraj Nalam |
Julia Cook |
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