2014 Colorado State Championship Results
The bleachers of the Rock Canyon High School (RCHS) gym were filling with spectators. Instead of a basketball game though, they were coming to see archery. Part of the Olympic Archery in Schools program, archers from different schools in the Denver area were gathering to compete in the 2014 Colorado State Championship.
New to the program this year, RCHS jumped into archery with both feet. Coaches Cindy Powell and Zhihua Song were both eager students of the sport and took on the challenge of organizing a State Tournament. Backing them up were also Conference Leader, Chris Dorow, and coaches Rodney Graham and David Callaway of Rocky Heights Middle School.
The Denver region has continued to grow and it was apparent with 72 archers lined up on the shooting line, stretching all of the way from one end of the gym to the other.
>> 2014 CO State Championship Results <<
The competition started with a 36 arrow ranking round. For middle school, Madisen Orcutt from Mesa MS led the group with a 340/360. For the boys, Connor Kuybus of Mount Ridge took first with a 335/360. On the high school side, Grace Hazen of ThunderRidge HS finished in first by 8 points with a 308/360. For the men, Rock Canyon’s Tyler Davenport took top honors with a 246/360.
After the lunch break, the archers gathered to see how where they placed in the Olympic Round brackets. For these matches, the archers faced off against each other using the Set System. Each end, the archers shoot three arrows. The archer with the higher score gets two set points. If they tie then they each receive one set point. The archer to reach 6 set points first wins the match. In the case of tie at 5-5 set points, then a single arrow shoot-off determines the match.
One of the exciting highpoints of the matches was a single arrow shoot-off between twin sisters! Beka and Reggie Gaglione both won their 1/16th and 1/8th round matches which led to a showdown between the two in the quarter-final round. The two sisters matched each other arrow for arrow. Soon they realized they were tied at 5-5 which meant a single arrow shoot-off was required! Everyone gathered around to watch and as they held their breath, the two girls raised up their bows. Twack…9 points. Twack… another 9! Both girls sank their arrow in the gold! A judge call would be needed to determine which arrow was closest to the center. After careful inspection, it was determined that Reggie’s arrow was barely closer. The two sisters hugged and with Beka’s wish of good luck, Reggie would go on to win the bronze.
The Olympic Round was filled with many other exciting matches as archers dueled for a path into the medal matches. In the end for the middle school girls, Madisen Orcutt would defend her first place spot and take gold. For the boys, Daren Writer knocked out the first seed and proceeded to go all of the way to capture the gold. The high school medals would require single arrow shoot-offs for both the men and women. Grace Hazen narrowly beat out Mega Burke for first place as did Tyler Davenport over Tyler Dorn.
The last event of the day was the Team Round. For sake of time each team shot four ends of 6 arrows. The team with the highest total score would win. For the middle school girls, the team of Reggie, Julia, and Beka of Rocky Heights would take first after a single shoot-off against the team from Mountain Ridge who had tied them with a score of 211/240. For the boys, the team of Jacob, Ben, and Sam from Rocky Heights would take first by a mere 2 points. Lastly for high school, the team of Kealy, Grace, and Moriah would take first place.
We would like thank all of the organizers, volunteers, and sponsors for putting on a great event! A big thank you also to the archers, coaches, family, and friends for coming out to the competition and supporting the program. It’s been a great year and we look forward to seeing the Denver region continue to grow. Thanks everyone!
“72 archers gathered at Rock Canyon High School for the 2014 Colorado State Championship!”
From 2014 Colorado State Championship, posted by Olympic Archery in Schools on 4/28/2014 (140 items)