HAMILTON, Ohio - The US Open was held this morning, with several of the sport's top stars mounting the podium. After the 129th US National Target Championships concluded yesterday, senior and masters archers were seeded for elimination matches. Tricky winds today tested archers and led to several very intense matchups.
Brady Ellison took gold for the recurve men in a showstopping match against London 2012 teammate Jacob Wukie. Both archers scored perfect 30s in their last set, earning applause from fans. In another tight match, Joe Fanchin won bronze over Jake Kaminski in a one-arrow shoot off, in which both archers shot gold, but Fanchin was closer to center.
Both recurve women's medal matches saw US archers shoot against women from Chinese-Taipei. Tan Ya-Ting prevailed to win gold over USA's Miranda Leek, while Khatuna Lorig clinched the bronze medal over Lin Shih-Chia. Jennifer Hardy did not compete after placing well in the National Target Championships, causing some surprises in the early brackets.
Henry Bass upset compound men's No. 1 seed Braden Gellenthien in the quarterfinals before falling to eventual gold medal winner, Rodger Willet, Jr. Joshua Binger stopped Reo Wilde in the 1/8th round and No. 2 seed Bridger Deaton in the quarterfinals. Binger faced Bass for the bronze medal but Bass took the final win. Jesse Broadwater shot well enough versus an unstoppable Willett to finish with the silver medal.
The story of the day for compound women was archery newcomer Crystal Gauvin. With less than a year of competitive archery experience under her belt, Gauvin, the No. 13 seed, took everyone by surprise, upsetting several veterans before settling for fourth behind Jamie Van Natta, who took the bronze title. Erika Jones, coming off a National Championship win, won the gold, and Diane Watson claimed the silver.
For recurve master men, Glenn Meyers seized gold over Gary Yamaguchi and Rick McKinney defeated Gabriel Querol for the bronze. Kathleen Stevenson won gold for recurve master women, while Angie Olds finished with silver and Suzanne Phillips took bronze over Elzbieta Tworek.
Jeff Button claimed top honors for compound master men. Jim Beasley won silver and Ron Hardesty edged out Roger Bainbridge for bronze. Sandie Swirles-Duncan outshot Kathy Miller for gold while Linda Huff defeated Mary Wenzel for bronze.
Later in the afternoon on the same field, youth archers participating in the Easton JOAD Nationals participated in a fun team round competition. All participants got the chance to shoot with new archers in randomly assigned teams and obtained valuable experience in different competition formats. Participation in this event will garner a participation point towards the Grand National Champion titles to be awarded following elimination matches tomorrow.
For all US Open match
results, check http://www.ianseo.net/Details.php?toId=410. Follow USA Archery on Facebook, Twitter and
Instagram for photos and updates from the field throughout the competition.
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