LANSING, Mich. – The University of the Cumberlands reclaimed the Overall National Team Championship at the 2025 HotelPlanner USA Archery Collegiate Target Nationals, with defending champions Texas A&M University (TAMU) finishing second and University of Pikeville taking third.
On the final day of competition, individual and mixed team gold medal matches took center stage, bringing to an end three days of top quality, record-setting collegiate archery.
In between, the almost 500 archers coped with all that Mother Nature could hurl at them, including high winds during Saturday eliminations.
At the 2024 edition, Venugopal Kunnavakkam set a new collegiate record in the barebow men’s division, just weeks after switching from his preferred recurve. This year, he set a new collegiate record in the recurve competition, pending verification. Kunnavakkam shot 665 in qualification, one more than the previous best which was set by Trenton Cowles. He also won recurve mixed team gold alongside Catalina GNoriega.
Alex Gilliam, his Texas A&M teammate, went on to win gold. Joshua Baek (Columbia University) finished with silver and Jackson Mirich (Mesa Community College) the bronze.
Gilliam, Kunnavakkam and Cowles will be part of the 12-strong USA team for the World University Games (WUG). Qualification in Michigan doubled as the WUG team trials. The rest of the team includes Catalina GNoriega, who also took individual gold in recurve women, as well as Colton Green (University of Rio Grande) – a silver medalist with Matteja Metcalf in compound mixed team. The World University Games take place in Germany in July. (Full team below).
There were sibling silvers secured on Sunday, with Jared and Brianna Laux (University of the Cumberlands) both taking second in their respective divisions. Jared had the lead against Sawyer Sullivan (TAMU), before the back-to-back champion made it three in a row with a 143-140 victory.
Brianna threatened to stage a fightback against GNoriega in recurve women, only for the Olympian to take the fifth and final end for a 7-3 win.
Kyle Coffey regained his title in barebow men. His experience at this stage allowed him to overcome Trapper Feuerbacher (TAMU), the number one seed, by a score of 6-0. Coffey won gold in 2023.
Emotions got the better of some on discovering their success. You could see how much the 6-0 win over Carlie Ellsworth (Muskingum University) meant to Kennedy Sumpter (University of the Cumberlands), as she cried tears of joy. There were similar scenes in the recurve women’s team event on Saturday, as Judith Gottlieb realized that she and Columbia University teammates Eunice Choi and Lillian Han had taken gold from Texas A&M.
Carson Krahe followed up her silver medal at the Hyundai Archery World Cup Stage 2 with gold in compound women at the 2025 Collegiate Target Nationals. Krahe always had the upper hand in her match with Lanie Nish (University of the Cumberlands), one of a number of match-ups involving the top two collegiate archery programs.
There was success for the relatively new archery program at Rio Grande University in Ohio, which is being guided by the helping hand of Jonathan Clemins. As well as silver in compound mixed team, they also won gold in barebow mixed team - thanks to Morrighain Nyer and John Sarazin - and the barebow women’s team event. That trio consisted of Nyer, Madison Abel and Ashlynn Peters.
The pairing of Ian Gold and Natalianna Ferrara brought joy to the University of Arizona as they claimed bronze in recurve mixed team.
University of the Cumberlands got the final day off to a flying start in pursuit of the Overall National Team Championship, sweeping the podium in fixed pins men and taking silver and bronze in fixed pins women. Gold went to Allison Roberts of William Carey University.
That individual success on Sunday followed team triumphs on Saturday. Of the eight team categories (four men and four women), the University of the Cumberlands captured gold in three, with five other schools winning one each – Columbia University, Union Commonwealth University, University of Rio Grande, University of Pikeville and Texas A&M.
You can find all the scores and results from the 2025 HotelPlanner USA Archery Collegiate Target Nationals. There are also photos from each day.
Recurve Men |
Recurve Women |
|
Venugopal Kunnavakkam (Texas A&M) |
Catalina GNoriega (Texas A&M) |
Compound Men |
Compound Women |
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Isaac Sullivan (University of the Cumberlands) |
Sydney Sullenberger (Columbia) |
