Foley, AL- Emmanuel College Archery competed in the 2021 U.S 3D Collegiate Nationals at the Graham Creek Interpretative Center taking home a 6th place finisher.
In this year's edition of the national championship, our Lions faced more than 30 different schools represented by approximately 400 student-athletes from across the country. Precisely, Emmanuel College shoots against some of the most renowned institutions in the sport of archery such as the University of Cumberland, Lindsey Wilson, or Texas A&M. On the individual side, Reshonsky led the board of our Lions with a 4th place and barely missed the podium for a single point in the Women's Olympic Recurve. Reshonsky was followed by Hermosilla with 7th place in the individual brackets in the Men's Olympic Recurve. Both of these individual results awarded the Reshonsky and Hermosilla, who won the tournament in 2018 and 2019, a 4th place in the Olympic Recurve Mix-Team competition.

 The success in the field was not just limited to the Olympic Recurve Division. Darren Bearden finished his senior year with 9th place in the Men's Barebow division while Marissa Fullard in Women's Bowhunter and Martina Zikmundova in Women's Open Compound finished 11th and 10th respectively. Precisely, Zikmundova's strong performance partnered with freshman Ethan Todd to put the Open Compound Mix-Team in the top ten in the nation with a 7th place finisher.
However, the stellar performance of our Lions came on Saturday afternoon and evening. First, the Men's Open Compound team formed by senior Kenneth Dacus, sophomore Gabriel Tuten, and freshman Ethan Todd made the cut in the top 8 head-to-head eliminations. Emmanuel College, seeded in 7th, faced the University of Cumberland which they qualified 2nd and they were one of the contenders for the national title. After a fearless elimination, Emmanuel's Open Compound team won the head-to-head by 1 point and qualified for the semifinals. In the semifinals, our Lions keep their nerves under control and overcome Liberty University to access for the first time in Emmanuel Archery's history a Gold Medal Match Final in the Open Compound team competition. In the final, our Lions faced Lindsey Wilson, but who once again overcame with talent and passion the struggles during the final to grab the first National Championship in the Open Compound discipline.

After the excitement of the afternoon, Emmanuel College's Mixer Team formed by Fullard, Zikmundova, and Hermosilla qualified for the big finals during the closure banquet at Foley Sport & Tourism's sporting facilities. In this new competition format, the Lions qualified up to the quarterfinals in which only 8 schools remained. During this part of the bracket, Emmanuel College went head-to-head against the powerful house of Texas A&M. During the entire elimination round, Texas A&M and Emmanuel College exchanged the lead till the last target in which Texas A&M took the lead for 4th points forcing Emmanuel College to play aggressive and tie the elimination by Hermosilla's shot hitting the "14" bonus ring. In the shoot-off, our Lions lost by only two points but automatically locked the 5th finish position in the mixer team competition.

The next collegiate tournament for our Lions would be the U.S Indoor National Championship between January 14th-16th. Please join us in congratulating our Archery Team on their performance.

U.S 3D Collegiate Nationals Championship Full Results:

Team Events: 
1st Men's Open Compound Team (Kenneth Dacus, Gabriel Tuten, & Ethan Todd)
4th Olympic Recurve Mix Team (Rachel Reshonsky & Roger Hermosilla)
5th Mixer-Equipment Team (Marissa Fullard, Martina Zikmundova, & Roger Hermosilla)
7th Open Compound Mix Team (Martina Zikmundova & Ethan Todd)

Individual Finishers:

Olympic Recurve:
4th Rachel Reshonsky
7th Roger Hermosilla

Open Compound:
10th Martina Zikmundova
37th Ethan Todd
41st Gabriel Tuten
51st Kenneth Dacus

Barebow:
9th Darren Bearden

Bowhunter:
11th Marissa Fullard






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