June 30th through July 5th had the target archers converge on the town of Decatur Alabama. The venue was a soccer complex with multiple fields, concession stand and large open general use grass areas. The venue itself was excellent. There were three shooting areas, 60-70 meter field, 25-30 meter field, and the 50 meter field. The Rcherz handheld scoring system was used for the first time and the nationals and archers like the idea of no cords running around everywhere. The downside was the weather. Rain, rain and more rain; we were also stopped a few times by lightning. Archers resorted to alternate footwear; boots, high tops, goulashes, even shower caps in an effort to keep feet dry!

Arizona was well represented!

Paseo Vista sent 12 archers to the tournament and they all did excellent

• Nathanael Nam - Bowman Recurve Male, 11th, strong 310+for 3 rounds, went to quarter finals!
• Iris Salvador - Cub Recurve Female, 21st in her first JOAD NATS! Won a Gold Medal in the Clout round, made it to the 1/16th rounds just missing in a close match!
• Haley Petersheim - Cadet Recurve Female, 29th in her first JOAD NATS! Won the Bronze in the Clout round, made it to the 1/16th round!
• Samuel Nam - Cadet Recurve Male, 63rd and made the cut in his first JOAD NATS! Had to shoot against the #2 seed in the 1/32 round but did great!
• Eleanor Rodriguez - Junior Recurve Female, 23rd, qualified high enough to get a bye in her first round! Had a tough match in the 1/16th round.
• Karissa Yamaguchi - Junior Recurve Female, 4th place JOAD Nationals, 2nd place in the Eliminations (one arrow away from winning it all!), 2nd place overall! Silver in the Team Rounds too!
• Rebecca Bell - Junior Recurve Female, 36th, tough match in the 1/32 match, Gold Medal in the Clout Rounds and had the highest score of all the clout competitors! She is the Queen of Clout!
• Andrew Mateo - Junior Recurve Male, 5th place JOAD Nationals, lost in the 1/8th round to 4th place finisher, took the Silver Medal in the Team Rounds
• Danielle Reynolds - Senior Compound Female, 8th place with an awesome 1337!
• Nathan Yamaguchi - Senior Recurve Male, 6th at the Target Nationals! He shot his personal best of 338 (single round) and 662 (72 arrows)!
• Gary “3 Time” Yamaguchi - Masters 50+ Recurve Male, 1st Place at the Target Nationals! Top seed in the Combined Masters US Open, just missed in the quarter finals. Won the Bronze Medal over fellow Arizonan Rick McKinney! Also took the Silver in the Senior Men’s Recurve Clout Round!
• Rick McKinney - Masters 60+ Recurve Male, 1st Place at the Target Nationals! Beat his nearest competitor by nearly 100 points, 2nd seed in the Combined Masters US Open. Just lost the Bronze to fellow Arizonan Gary Yamaguchi!

Papago Archery Association sent 1 archer to the tournament and he rocked it!

• Waylon Hjerpe - Bowman Recurve Male, man on a mission. 1st Place JOAD Nationals, 1st Place Elimination Rounds (shooting a perfect 120 during ¼ finals), 1st Place Team Rounds. Gold Medal Grand National Champion. That is a total of 4 first places!!!

Corner Kidz sent 3 archers to the tournament and did great!

• Spencer Yee - Cadet Compound Male, 15th and made it to the 1/16th round!
• Jeremy Corridori - Cadet Compound Male, 14th and made it to the 1/8th round!
• Travis Levario - Cub Compound Male, 13 and made it to the 1/8th round! Took Bronze in the Team Rounds!

Desert Sky Archers sent 6 archers to the tournament, all but 1 first timers!

• Tyler Bachman - Cadet Recurve Male, 68th, gained 10 spots the second day barely missed the cut by 26 points. Only shooting Recurve since December. Carried his team to the ¼ finals, lost to the eventual team winner.
• Devin Smith - Cadet Recurve Male, 82nd. Shot awesome for his first Outdoor Nats! he did great!
• Isabella Del Principe - Cadet Recurve Female, 19th, made it to the 1/8 round in Eliminations and carried her team in the Team Rounds!
• Sam Lopez - Cadet Compound Male, 50th and shot great the whole tournament. Lost out on the 1/32 round.
• Kolton Heidebrecht - Cub Compound Male, 24th, just left DSA to form Prairie Fire Archers in Kansas! Shot great but just missed it in the 1/32 round.
• Kristin Huber - Cub Compound Female, 20th, just missed it in the 1/16 round. She and her team took the Silver in the Team Rounds!

Pineapple Archery sent 4 archers to the tournament, performed awesome!

• Brian Bullis Jr. - Cadet Recurve Male, 3rd place in the qualifiers! made it to the ¼ finals! His team took the Bronze in the Team Rounds and Brian got the Silver in the overall!!!!
• Alexis Ruiz - Cadet Compound Female, 5th place in the qualifiers! Lost in the quarter finals on a one arrow shoot off!
• Ashlyn Merritt - Cadet Compound Female, 8th place in the qualifiers! Shot great and lost in the quarter finals by 1 point!
• Adam Vainuskas - Senior Recurve Male, 36th, shot great in the 1/32 round but just missed it.

Arizona Archery Club

• Ben Maltbie - Junior Compound Male, 20th and just missed it by 2 points in the 1/16th round. Ben shot awesome!
• Elisa Keller - Cub Compound Female, 24th, Elisa also shot great but just missed out in the 1/16th round.

Undetermined Clubs

• Tate Lewis - Cadet Compound Male, 20th in qualifier, shot great in the 1/16th.
• Stephanie Phlipot - Junior Recurve Female, 28th in qualifier, shot great in the 1/16th.
• Chris Webster - Senior Recurve Male, 9th in the qualifier, won his 1/32 and 1/16 match!
• Brady Ellison - Senior Recurve Male, Gold in qualifier, Gold in eliminations!

On top of the Archers, 4 of our Arizonans worked the tournament!

• Sheri Rhodes - USA Archery Tournament Director and Organizer
• Mike Cullumber - USA Archery Field Manager 50 Meter Field
• Steve Yee - Ran the WiFi and worked with Rcherz
• Rick Bachman - Judge 50 Meter Field

These 32 Arizona Archers did an incredible job. They all should be proud of how they did and we should be proud on how they represented us! If I missed anyone I am sorry. Please let me know and we will update the article.

Rick Bachman

Secretary
USA Archery Arizona
7-20-15