After winning the 2010 U.S. Youth Olympic Games Team Trials for archery event on Saturday, both Miranda Leek and Benjamin Chu closed out the 2010 Easton JOAD National Championships with grand champion gold medals in Junior Recurve Girl's and Cadet Recurve Boy's divisions, respectively. Leek continued to dominate the competition at the Cownie Soccer Complex in Des Moines, Iowa, which coincidently is where Leek is from.
Leek maintained her form and accuracy shooting a strong 1,168 points to lead the qualifying round. Michelle Gilbert, who won the 2010 Indoor Nationals in her respective age category, finished second in the qualifying round with 1,135. Sitting third after the qualifying round was Holly Stover with 1,133 points.
Leek stayed in first in the two other compulsory rounds, winning the JOAD Team Round and the JOAD Olympic Round. She also shot the most 10s in the qualifying rounds with 26, with 8 of those finding the X. The next closest for 10-marks was Gilbert with 20.
Over in the Cadet Recurve Boy's division, it was a battle between Chu and runner-up Sean McLaughlin, who needed a tie breaker to decide the grand champion title. Chu was on fire over the four-day competition where he shot a qualifying round score of 1,289, that was 37 more points than Sean Curtin, who finished fourth overall. Chu's ranking round was highlighted with 43 10s, with more than one third of those finding the X, 16 to be exact.
Both Chu and McLaughlin had the same point totals in the compulsory divisions. Chu won the ranking and team rounds, while dropping to third in the Olympic round. McLaughlin was third in the ranking round with 1,246, while claiming first in the team and Olympic rounds.
Peter Kelchner, who was the 2010 U.S. Youth Olympic Games Team Trials runner-up, took home a gold in the Junior Recurve Boy's division. He was second after the qualifying round with 1,249 points, and rebounded to claim the team and Olympic rounds, giving him the title over Matthew Zumbo. Kelchner was dialed in the 10-mark as well, where he found it 39 times. Zumbo, who won the qualifying round with 1,275 points, fell to third in the Olympic round.
Ben Cleland jr., a member of 2010 U.S. World Cup Silver Medal winning team that competed in Antalya, Turkey claimed the Junior Compound Boy's grand champion title. Cleland took the lead in the qualifying round with a 1,362 total and never looked back in winning the team and Olympic rounds. Garrett Abernethy and Henry Bass were second and third respectively in the Junior Compound Boy's division.
In the Junior Compound Women's division, it was a classic shoot out on the range where 8 of the 11 contestants shot at least 30 10s in the qualifying round. These eight totaled 379 bulls-eyes with 122 of them marking the X. Kailey Johnston climbed to the top winning the Ranking Round with 1,339 points, and stayed in the driver's seat for the overall title. Tristan Skarvan was nipping at Johnston's heels, but fell short by placing fourth in the Olympic round. Paige Pearce was third overall.
Following in similar fashion was the Cadet Compound Boy's division where the center 10 was found 1,577 times by the 32 contestants. Riley Whiting was remarkable in the qualifying round with 1,383 points and never looked back in claiming the grand champion title. His qualifying round was highlighted with 47 Xs and 94, 10s. Alexander Sahi finished second overall with a qualifying round of 1,368 points. Ivan Harangozo finished third with a qualifying round of 1,367 points.
Kayla Harmeyer excelled in claiming the Cadet Compound Girl's title where she opened up with a 1,351-point ranking round that was marked with 72, 10s. She never looked back in the two other rounds. Amanda Cobucci was the runner-up, while Kate Cleland finished with the bronze.
The Cadet Recurve Girl's division ended with a tie and the grand champion award to both Mackenzie Brown and Cara Henslin. Both athletes were tied after the compulsory rounds, and with 10-counts and Xs. Henslin claimed the qualifying round with a 1,186 total, with Brown finished second with 1,172 points. In the Olympic round, Brown pulled ahead to finish first, while Henslin was the runner-up. All tiebreakers were exhausted and both archers stood atop the medal platform.
The 35 athletes in the Cub division provide the United States a strong future to come. These archers accumulated 824 arrows into the 10-spot in the qualifying round. Winning the overall Cub titles were:
The 33 Bowman athletes found the 10-count a total of 1,017 times. Winning the grand champion Bowman gold medals were:
The Junior Olympic Archery Development program holds the Easton JOAD National Outdoor Championships annually, where archers are vying for a spot on the Junior U.S. Archery Team. The JOAD Nationals is a four-day tournament for the four age-groups. All archers shoot a 144-arrow qualification round, followed by a Team and Olympic rounds. The JOAD National Grand Champion is based on the final placement in the three rounds.
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