PHOENIX, Arizona – The World Archery and Para Championships and Pan American Games U.S. para and compound teams were decided today under blazing sun.
2019 is the first year compound archery will be included in the continental championships. Trials winners Braden Gellenthien and Paige Pearce will represent Team USA in Lima this summer.
“I’m pretty excited,” commented Gellenthien. “it’s going to be a busy season with a lot of tournaments and not a lot of sleep at home but I guess that’s what it’s all about. I’m really proud to be representing the U.S. and am looking forward to this whole summer.”
Gellenthien will be joined by World Cup Final Champion Kris Schaff, as two thirds of the reigning world champion team, and in his international debut, James Lutz. Lutz shot lights out in the trials, and has had impressive performances over the last year; he will be a strong addition to the team.
“We shot a ridiculous amount of arrows in this Trials process,” commented Pearce after 14 round robin matches in under 24 hours. “It literally came down to the last arrow of the last match to determine the Pan Am Team, so I’m really relieved. It was hard work but it paid off.”
“We have a super good team for the World Championships,” added Pearce. “It’s going to be me, Alexis Ruiz and Cassidy Cox. I think we’re going to do really well. I was with Cassidy in 2017 and Alexis has been shooting incredible so we’re going to be solid.”
The most competitive para division, the compound open men, saw intense competition. Paralympic silver medalist Matt Stutzman will compete with Paralympic champion Andre Shelby and three-peat team member Ben Thompson, who won bronze in 2017.
“Ironically, beforehand we had talked about the team we would like to go to the World Championships because we’re chasing the team world record and we felt like the best team to accomplish that would be the three of us,” commented Stutzman. “The fact that actually came true-- I’m excited about it. It’s not just going over there, but we’re working to earn the spots for Tokyo and we’re trying to break the world record, so there’s multiple agendas for us.”
Paralympian and reigning world team silver medalist Michael Lukow won the Trials for the recurve open men’s division just ahead of 2015 World Champion and multi-time Paralympian Eric Bennett. For Bennett and Timothy Palumbo, this will be their fourth world championships. Palumbo was also on the 2017 silver medal team with Lukow.
“We’re excited, the three of us shot together in Germany and it didn’t medal there unfortunately, but we’re hoping to fix that,” shared Bennett. Bennett personally took some time off last year but says he’s officially back and is ready for the major events ahead.
Jason Tabansky and Lia Coryell will make up the W1 squad. This will be Coryell’s third consecutive world championship team and Tabansky’s debut. Newly classified Emma Rose Ravish will make her international debut in the recurve open women’s division along with Lori Dupree.
Martha Chavez, Erev Richards and Tink Wallace will make up a strong compound open women’s team. Chavez, who will compete at her fourth consecutive world para championships, won team silver in 2013 and bronze at the 2015 Para Pan Am Games. Wallace has also competed at the last two installments of the world para championships, while Richards will make her debut on the world stage.
Complete results are available from the para and compound Trials. The recurve team announcement was made late last week. Follow USA Archery on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for more from the events and check out official photos.
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