Cadet Recurve Mixed Team Competition
By Regional Judge Gary T. Yamaguchi
A satellite “unofficial” Mixed Team Competition was held in conjunction with the Arizona Cup for the Cadet recurve archers on Saturday afternoon, April 9. This event was created to make a second event for the many Cadet recurve archers who traveled great distances to compete in the FITA ranking round. Because of their shorter target distances the Cadets are not allowed to compete in the main Olympic Round or Open Team Events. Though the Mixed Team Competition did not count for ranking purposes, a great time was had by all participants, who gained valuable experience shooting in a team competition. 12 mixed teams were formed, most of which were self chosen while some were chosen to match participants of similar ability based on near-final FITA scores from the day before. Two teams were unisex teams due to the larger number of boys than girls.
Teams that found themselves on the losing end after their first round match shot a practice match with another team; Alexis Drake and Jonathan Kuehn of Washington State shot a blistering 137 in one such match, which equaled the high score of the tournament.
In the second round, Lanola Pritchard (Utah) and Dugan Denton (Montana), seeded 9th, tied the top seeded team of Elizabeth Caughell and Chason Hacking (Washington), and defeated the top seeds in a shootoff, 9 and 7 versus 8 and 8. Madison Eich (Washington) and Edson Kim (Brazil), the fourth seeded team, shot their way into the Gold Medal match first defeating Maianna Dematteis and Daniel Cunningham, then Pritchard-Denton in yet another shootoff. On the other half of the draw, third seeds Mackenzie Brown (Texas) and Christopher Luman (Georgia) paired to blaze their way into the Gold Medal match, defeating Cara Henslin (Georgia) and Nathan Yamaguchi (Arizona) in the semis.
The Gold and Bronze medal matches were tight through the first three ends, with scores separated by a point or two at most. In the Gold Medal Match, Eich and Kim took a 1 point lead into the last end, but couldn’t hold on falling to Brown and Luman 137 to 134. Brown went home with another gold medal to add to her FITA gold medal from the day before, and Kim added a silver medal to his FITA bronze. For the Bronze, Pritchard and Denton finally won without a tie score and shootoff, victorious over Henslin and Yamaguchi 130 to 128.
Great sportsmanship was shown by all the archers involved, and many new friendships cutting across team boundaries and geographical separations were sparked. This was the highlight of the tournament for many, and a success by any measure.
Many thanks to judges Janet Yamaguchi and Sandra Reynolds, photographer Robyn Klimitchek, helper Rene Kuehn, and Director of Shooting Michael Cullumber for staying and putting on this event.
Results and team photo are posted on the results page at http://www.ianseo.net/Details.php?toId=110
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