Liberty University Club Sports
Easton Youth & Collegiate Trophy Tournament
Archers fine-tune sights for Feb. 17-19 USAA Indoor Nationals at JMU
2/1/2023 1:43:00 PM | Archery
Four of the 12 archers Liberty University's men's and women's archery team carried to this past Sunday's Easton Youth & Collegiate Trophy Tournament placed in the top five in their respective divisions.
The indoor event, hosted by Lancaster Archery at the Spooky Nook Sports complex in Manheim, Pa., the largest indoor venue of its kind in the United States, attracted more than 2,000 archers, but only a few hundred in the collegiate ranks.
"We had a strong showing overall," Liberty Head Coach Jason Lynch said. "Everyone did a good job of keeping up with their practice over break and it showed. I was really impressed with them gearing up so fast, and it was great to have such a strong showing after having so little time to prepare after (Christmas) break."
Firing at targets 18 meters away, sophomore Kayla Cassidy won the women's barebow out of 14 competitors with her total of 478 through 20 rounds of three arrows, averaging 7.967 out of a possible 11.0 on each arrow.
"At the same competition last year, Kayla just barely missed, and got second place," Lynch said. "This year, she was neck and neck with a competitor (Cecelia Seiglie) to the end and pulled out a win. She was down by one point coming into the final round and she pulled ahead with a really good score on the last round."
Grace Wahl finished second in women's bowhunter with her total of 552, averaging 9.2 per shot.
Fellow Lady Flames senior Natasha Leininger finished fourth in the women's recurve event with her 551 total (9.183 average), behind only three archers from Columbia University who fired totals of 570, 569, and 556.
"Natasha got a personal record in one of her rounds, and all of our archers shot good, solid scores," Lynch said.
In the men's compound division, Joel Barkley finished fifth out of 22 archers with a 624 total (10.4 average), with the winner, Sawyer Sullivan from Texas A&M, firing a 646. Fellow Flames junior Samuel Deel placed seventh in the men's recurve with his 512 total and Adam Gorsline came in ninth in the men's bowhunter class with his 575.
Complete results are available online.
A total of 12 individuals represented Liberty, with 10 of those expected to compete at the Feb. 17-19 regional shoot of the USA Archery Indoor National Championships, hosted by JMU on a 20-meter range at the Horizon's Edge Sports Campus in Harrisonburg, Va.
By Ted Allen/Staff Writer; Video by Micah Adams/Club Sports Video & Media Assistant
Players Mentioned
