Val d'Isere, France - Team USA has had a strong showing at the World Archery Field Championships thus far, with American archers shooting well in the unmarked and marked qualifications, and top performances in today's elimination rounds, qualifying Paige Pearce, Jesse Broadwater, Alan Eagleton and Jake Kaminski for the gold medal matches, while Dave Cousins will shoot for bronze.
Qualifications
The event opened with 72 arrows at unmarked distances through a rugged course in the Alps, followed by 72 arrows the following day at marked distances. The archers' combined scores served to qualify them for elimination rounds. Team USA had one entrant in the barebow junior women's group, Kathryn Fischer, who qualified 4th with a 204. In the barebow women's category, Charlene Trafford was 22nd with 463; for barebow men, Team USA had three entrants, with Alan Eagleton leading the Americans in 5th with 667. Following Eagleton were Benny Rogers and Ty Pelfrey, 14th and 19th, with 633 and 612 respectively.
For the compound archers, Emily Fischer, Kayleigh Rogers and Allison Williams qualified 6th, 7th and 8th in the junior women's category with 712, 701 and 660. Hunter Barthels was the top qualifying American in the compound junior men's group, 8th with 765, while Evan Scudner and Jeremy Clayton Nelson Baugh were 10th and 15th, hitting scores of 759 and 702. In the women's category, Paige Pearce qualified 4th, shooting a 767, while Hunter Jackson finished in 15th with 720. Jesse Broadwater and Dave Cousins were the heavy hitters in the compound men's group, qualifying 1st and 2nd with 830 and 827; Rod Menzer shot a 795 to qualify 16th.
American recurve archers also had success in qualifications; in 9th for the recurve junior women was Heather Trafford, shooting a 511, while sister Miriam Trafford and Kit Flick finished in 14th and 15th with 426 and 423. Joshua Raby and Hardy Trafford (brother of Heather and Miriam, and son of barebow competitor Charlene), competing in the recurve junior men's category, hit scores of 598 and 496 to qualify 16th and 22nd. For the recurve women, U.S. Olympic Team alternate Heather Koehl was the top American archer, qualifying 7th with 635; Nancey Tsai and Jory Schroeder ended in 21st and 22nd, shooting 468 and 438. In the men's category, Olympic silver medalist Jake Kaminski qualified 2nd, hitting a 709; Joe McGlyn shot a 643 for 22nd, while Wyndell Wilhelm hit a 570 for 31st.
Eliminations
Following the 1/8 elimination
rounds and the quarterfinals shot earlier today, the best for archers per
category competed in semifinals in the format of matches shot on four
targets this afternoon. The winners advanced to the gold medal finals,
while the archers who did not win in the semis will shoot in the bronze medal matches on Sunday. Match-by-match coverage from World Archery Communications:
Recurve Men