Guadalajara, Mexico

JDT Red Team members Mackenzie Brown, Michelle Gilbert, Kiley Larrick, Miranda Leek, Heather Trafford, Chris Luman, Daniel McLaughlin, Nathan Yamaguchi and Matt Zumbo traveled to Guadalajara Mexico to compete in the Pan American Championships, a qualifying event for the Pan American Games.

The team traveled with several Resident Athletes/Sr. USAT team members including Khatuna Lorig, Thomas Stanwood, Brady Ellison, Jacob Wukie, Jake Kaminski, Kristin Braun and Heather Koel.

Red Team Cadet Women  Michelle Gilbert, Mackenzie Brown Heather Trafford  and Kiley Larrick shot up a division to compete as Juniors, while Miranda Leek shot up two divisions to shoot  with the Seniors.   Daniel McLaughlin, Matt Zumbo and Chris Luman competed as Cadets while Nathan Yamaguchi shot up a division with the Juniors.

A Happy Daniel brings home plenty of gold

During the Individual Ranking Rounds, JDT team members were awarded numerous medals for individual distances and overall FITA ranking round.

In the Recurve Cadet Male division Daniel McLaughlin took home gold at 70 and 60 meters, bronze a 50 meteres, silver at 30 meters and a gold for the overall FITA with a score of 1335.  Matt Zumbo took gold at 50 meters and shot a remarkable score of 352 at 30meters.

In the Recurve Junior Women division, Michelle Gilbert took home silver medals at 70, 50 and 30 meters, bronze at 60 meters and a gold for the overall FITA.

Several performances were good enough to break standing Pan American Championship records.  Daniel McLaughlin broke the 70m, 60m and 144 arrow FITA records while  Matt Zumbo broke the 30m record.   Michelle Gilbert broke the 144 arrow FITA record with a score of 1271.

Going into Team Rounds, both the Cadet Men and Junior Women’s teams were ranked 1^st.

A summary of TEAM USA’s results after the first day of shooting are listed below:

RCM
1 Daniel McLaughlin 1335
3 Matthew Zumbo 1314
15 Chris Luman 1072
RJM
10 Nathan Yamaguchi 1215
RJW
1 Michelle Gilbert 1271
8 Mackenzie Brown 1202
13 Kiley Larrick 1176
17 Heather Trafford 1129
RM
1 Brady Ellison 1346
3 Jacob Wukie 1333
5 Jake Kaminski 1326
6 Thomas Stanwood 1319
RW
1 Khatuna Lorig 1344
6 Kristin Braun 1293
7 Heather Koehl 1292
11 Miranda Leek 1283

Results of the Second Day of Shooting (Team Rounds):

USA’s Senior Mens team takes gold, Senior Women, Jr Women and Cadet Men teams all take silver medals in their matches!

Brown, Gilbert and Trafford Win Silver in Junior Team Event

Results of the Third Day of Shooting (Junior and Cadet OR’s):

The team didn’t disappoint in the individual elimination matches, bringing home two gold and one bronze medal for their efforts. Finishing off her OR match with a perfect end of 30 points, Michelle Gilbert takes gold while Kiley Larrick brings home the bronze medal in the Junior Recurve Women division.  Daniel McLaughlin takes gold and Matt Zumbo finishes 4th in the Cadet Recurve Male division.

Daniel McLaughlin Wins Gold in Cadet OR's

Michelle Gilbert and Kiley Larrick Win Gold and Bronze in the OR's

Results of the Third Day of Shooting (Mixed Team Rounds):

Kiley Larrick and Nathan Yamaguchi win bronze in the junior mixed team event.

Kiley Larrick and Nathan YAmaguchi Capture Bronze in Mixed Team Event

27 July 2010

Many of you are familiar with the Boy Scout Jamboree traditionally held every four years. Fewer know that archery is one of the most popular activities held at the action packed gathering, and far fewer are aware that eight high performance program archers attended this year’s gathering.

Michelle Gilbert Demonstrating How Stabilizers Work

The Jamboree, held at Fort A.P. Hill Virginia, is a nationwide gathering of scouts held over Ten days featuring numerous activities like Air Rifle, Trap, Aquatics, Rappelling, Boating, Climbing Towers, BMX and yes, Archery.   The Jamboree featured four archery ranges each capable of handling 1500 archers/day.  This year, attendance was over 43,000 scouts.

As part of an outreach program designed to introduce the Boy Scouts and their coaches to Olympic Style archery, Coaches KiSik Lee and Guy Krueger, JDT members Kit Flick and  Michelle Gilbert along with RA’s Peter Kelchner, Jacob Wukie, Heather Koehl, Joe Fanchin, Kristin Braun and Nick Kale traveled to Fort A.P. Hill, Virginia to attend this year’s festivities.

The night before the demonstrations, Coach Lee gave a presentation on the National Training System to the Boy Scout Instructors.

The next day archers demonstrated their skill before an amazed audience of Boy Scouts.  For most of the Boy Scouts, this was their first exposure to Olympic Recurve style archery.  The boys were dazzled as the archers from the JDT and RA programs shot at distances much farther than those shot by the Boy Scouts, all while holding the arrows in the yellow.

Joe Fanchin Explains Arrow Construction

As part of the demonstration, the archers fielded many questions.  How did you get started in archery?  Where do you train? How long have you been shooting? How much does equipment cost?  What is that stick on the end of your bow?  Are you married?  Clearly, the boys were quite taken back by the visiting archers.

At the end of the demonstrations they also handed out brochures for the Junior Olympic Archer Development (JOAD) program.

Who knows, perhaps one of the many archers who watched the demonstrations will be inspired to become a future Olympian.

Opening Ceremonies

Because the event is attended by nearly all the members of the JDT,  the competition is fierce.  The atmosphere was serious and quiet.  The athletes know they are competing against the best, and because they are all serious competitors, each archer also knows they had better have their game on if they expect to do well. The event is a real pressure cooker.  Added to the intense competition, the thin air of Colorado Springs also took its toll on more than one athlete. Archers found out they not only had to perform under pressure  but also had to modify their breathing  between ends so as to not become fatigued in the thin air.

On the Line

The pressure is intentional.  Each JDT member wants to be an Olympian.  Nothing builds pressure and tests the nerves as much as shooting for Olympic gold, but for these youthful archers, this tournament was a great way to learn how to manage the pressure of competition.  The tournament provides a venue to practice their game under some very realistic conditions.  Each archer will have to learn to manage their emotions and nerves while under pressure if they expect to advance and be successful on the national and international stage.

The pressure benefits the coaches also.  They get to put each archers technique under a microscope while the archer is experiencing  the pressure of a competition.  The intense competition tends to bring any form faults to the surface.  National Head Coach KiSik Lee and the rest of the JDT coaches roam the shooting line with their notebooks and video cameras, observing what the pressure does to the technique of each archer.  The video is then used by the coaches to customize the training of each archer for the rest of the week.

National Head Coach KiSik Lee Takes Notes

At the end of the day, Miranda Leek broke a STAR FITA record previously held by Michelle Gilbert with a score of 563.  Matt Zumbo missed setting a World FITA record by just 4 points with a score of 580.

A summary of the FITA results are as follows:

The event also exposed the archers to the new Match Play (set) system which has replaced OR rounds.  Each end or set consists of three arrows shot by each archer in a head to head match.  The winner of a set gets two points.  If a set is tied each archer gets 1 point. The first archer to get 6 points wins the match and moves on.  A maximum of five sets (15 arrows) and, if necessary, a one arrow shoot-off are played in a match.

Match Play Results:

Matt Zumbo won gold, while Chris Luman and Nathan Yamaguchi took Silver and Bronze respectively.

Holly Stover won Gold while  Miranda Leek and Michelle Gilbert took Silver and Bronze respectively.

Team Rounds:

Later in the week, archers also shot some fun Team Rounds.  Archers were placed into teams of three based on their performance in the FITA shot earlier in the week.  Many archers have never participated in a team round so this was a valuable opportunity to learn in a safe, fun atmosphere.  The winning team was comprised of  JDT members Daniel McLaughlin, Michelle Gilbert and Hardy Trafford (archer invitee).

Silver, Gold and Bronze Teams

For full FITA results click here: FITA Results
For full girls Match Play results click here: Girls Match Play Results
For full boys Match Play results click here: Boys Match Play Results

We would like to thank our sponsors, including Easton Foundation and TaxMasters for lending financial support helping to cover travel and registration costs, Nike for the apparel, and Easton and Hoyt for their support in providing the Junior Dream Team Program with equipment.

• Feb. – March, U.S. National Indoor (Overall Results)
• April 8-11, Arizona Cup (Phoenix, AZ)
• April 23-25, Texas Shoot Out (College Station, TX)
• May 28-30, Gold Cup (Bloomfield, NJ)
• June 24-27, JOAD Nationals (Des Moines, IA)
• July 2-4, Nor’Easter (Carver, MA)
• July 21-24, U.S. Nationals (Adult Field)(Hamilton, OH)
• July 21-24, U.S. Nationals (Youth Field)(Hamilton, OH)
• Aug 13-15, South Dakota Cup (Yankton, SD)
• Oct 8-10, So Cal Showdown (Chula Vista, CA)
• Oct 29-31, Gator Cup (Newberry, FL)

Indoor Nationals
Southern Illinois Cup
JOAD Outdoor National Championship
125th National Target Championships

Other Major Tournaments of Interest to JDT Members:

AAE Arizona Cup
Gold Cup
Youth World Championships