On the weekend of April 22-23, 2006, five members of California Archery made the trip down to Long Beach where the 2006 Western Regional Archery Championships were held. On the beautiful El Dorado Park, home of the archery competition during the 1992 Los Angeles Olympics, gathered an impressive collection of archers. Stanford University and Dine College, the third and fourth ranked teams in the nation, were present as well as the newly reinvigorated Arizona State University archery club. In accompaniment were UCLA, Claremont, Saddleback College, Cuesta, and CSU Long Beach, all of whom have well-established archery programs. However, California Archery was about to make a scene in their first outdoor tourney.

In outdoor tournaments, archers are to shoot four different distances in four rounds, with each round 36 arrows being launched (so a total of 144 arrows were shot over the course of two days). Andrea Spacht and Catherine Wu, the team’s two recurve shooters, had to shoot at 70m, 60m, 50m, and 30m while the men’s side, which consisted of recurve shooters Keaton Chia, Michael Rosario, and compound shooter Victor Chia had to conquer distances of 90m, 70m, 50m, and 30m.

On the first day, all the archers shot the two longest distances. The recurve men, having no previous practice at 90m, had an outstanding outing. Both showed great potential as they hit 10s and 9s on several of their ends, which could also be said of the women. With improved consistency (and less midterms and homework), the four Golden Bears can definitely easily become the scariest archers on the field in the near future (and by near future, the writer of this article does indeed mean the NEAR future).

Victor Chia, the sole compounder, dominated the field, having no problems with dismantling the competition. By noon, the competition actually only consisted of him and another archer with the rest of the pack left biting the dust. The rest of the day was rounded out with random lottery generated team competition. Rosario’s team (Team P.Ho), consisting of Peter Ho of Stanford and Dakota Sinclair of Saddleback, took first while Wu’s team (the Psychotic Gardeners) along with Forrest Vanderbilt from UCLA and Angie A from CSULB, took third.

The second day began bright and early and each of the Cal shooters, after a fun-filled night spent on the beach, all came in ready to tear the field up. At 50m and 30m, the team’s hard practice and dedication showed with brilliant shooting and even more awesome scores. With all said and done, Wu and Spacht ranked 8th and 9th respectively in the region while the men finished 14th and 20th. While the scores were being tabulated and the bracket for the Olympic Elimination Round was set up, the California Archery team took a well-deserved break (majority of it spent trying to find arrows with the metal detector).

At the beginning of the first OR round, it was Rosario vs. K. Chia with Spacht and Wu earning byes. In a match for the ages, Rosario and K. Chia shot arrow after arrow at 70m in a competition that was never separated by more than 2 points. After 12 arrows, the suspense grew as the judges announced that the two were tied and that this would be settled with a one-arrow sudden death shoot-off. The field was silent as each archer shot their respective arrows. In the end, K. Chia was the victor.

The second round started with K.Chia vs. Ted Harden of ASU (who earned a first round bye) while on the women’s side, Wu and Spacht faced off. Though it wasn’t as entertaining as the men’s matchup, both women shot well with Wu emerging victorious. Harden, who would later go on to face the victor of the men’s recurve title, unfortunately eliminated K. Chia.

Wu, the last representative of Cal Archery, now faced Lindsay Pian of ASU (who is considered one of the top eight female archers in the nation) in the third round. For a beginner, Wu put up a decent fight but fell by 20 points in the end. Pian would later go on to win the women’s recurve title. “It was awesome shooting against her, there’s no shame to losing to the eventual champion. I’m not going to hang my head but rather train harder and celebrate the fact that the team did so well in our first outdoor tournament. I always knew that we were something extraordinary and guess what? People are starting to see that too. We’ve earned their respect and now they know that we’re always in it to win it.”

“It’s a learning curve. It’s rough that all four of us were pitted against one another in the OR round but it’s just one of those unfortunate coincidences that you have to deal with. Besides, it’s always fun shooting against the people you practice with.” K. Chia stated after being asked of how the Cal Archers fared.

Wu earned Rookie of the Year honors and was also voted by other colleges as the delegate for the West for the annual meeting of colleges held during USIACs, which will be held in late May.

Awesomeness? I think so.

From April 18th- 20th, all the best archers from across the nation gathered at the Intramural Field at the University of California Los Angeles to compete. So what was up for grabs? Only the right and prestige to calling yourself the best male or female compound or recurve archer as well as the best collegiate archery team in the entire nation. Who wanted these rights? More than 160 archers from over 25 different colleges (including Arizona State University, Stanford, James Madison University, Texas A&M, Yale University, UCLA, CSU Long Beach, and Dine College) decided to tango at the largest collegiate level competition. So who represented Cal? Freshmen recurve shooters Keaton Chia and Cat Wu.

USIACs is a three day action jammed tournament in which the mornings of the first two days were dedicated to a full FITA round where the archers would shoot four different distances, 30, 50, 60, 70m for women and 30, 50, 70, 90m for men. The afternoons were used for team elimination rounds, where four individuals from the same school would directly shoot off against another team in their respective divisions at 70m and will continue to do so until only one team was left standing. On Sunday, the last day of the tournament, the individual elimination rounds would be held and this would eventually determine who was the best individual archer in their respective divisions.

For the first two days, Wu shot the FITA round fairly well and drastically improved on her scores from West Regionals. “I’m content with the way I shot. It was difficult to practice while studying for finals so I guess the way I shot was actually pretty awesome though I think I should’ve been a lot better,” states Wu while shooting. All and all, her effort landed her a first round bye on Sunday during the individual elimination rounds. However in the second round, Wu faced Marie DeRegnaucourt of Michigan State University and had a rather difficult time trying to keep up. Wu’s first USIACs ended with a quick elimination in her first competition of the day.

Chia missed the first day of FITA shooting due to a final, but showed up the second day where slowly found his groove. “Several of the ends felt great. Everything just clicked. You feel as if you can’t miss,” says Chia after the end of the second day. Because he missed the first day, his seeding for the individual elimination rounds put him into a rather tight corner. Chia faced Matt Patrilla of Kirkwood Community College. Though he shot an awesome first end, Chia faltered slightly during the second end and was eventually defeated by Patrilla.

Because Cal only had two members present, we did not have enough members to compete in the team eliminations round.

A banquet was held Sunday night to tribute those who did win titles in their respective divisions. Wu snagged Rookie of the Year honors, bringing home not only a medal, but also a new recurve Hoyt Helix recurve riser and G3 limbs.

Top collegiate archery team in the nation went to Texas A&M (who also won it last year). Top female recurve team went to Stanford University (comprised of Sandra Tyan, Shanna Erickson, Phoebe Suen, and Liz Reuman), top female compound team and male recurve went to Texas A&M, and top male compound went to James Madison University. Individual awards went out to Lindsay Pian of Arizona State University (best female recurve), Joayn Fleury of James Madison University (best female compound), Jedd Greshock of James Madison University (best male compound), and Brian Christensen of Colorado State University (best male recurve).

“That will be us next year, without a doubt,” declared both Chia and Wu while watching Texas A&M receive their medals.

On the weekend of June 24-25, 2006, archers from UC Berkeley drove down to Long Beach to compete in the 2006 California State Outdoor Archery Championships that were held in El Dorado Park. The representatives included freshmen recurve shooters Keaton Chia, Michael Rosario, Andrea Spacht, captain Cat Wu, and newcomer Monika Roy. This tournament will be the first tournament in her college career and she will not disappoint in her performance. Other schools in attendance to watch the UC Berkeley team’s breakout performance included UCLA, Stanford University, USC, CSU Long Beach, Claremont, and CSU Fullerton.

The California State Outdoor Archery Championships is a two-day event over which an entire FITA round will be held. On the first day, the two longest distances will be shot and the shorter two distances will follow on the second day. The cumulative scores from all four distances will determine the winners.

The two longest distances are already difficult to shoot on a perfect day but even harder to handle in windy conditions that plagued both days of the tournament. However, despite the unfavorable conditions, all of the veteran Cal archers drastically improved on their scores from West Regionals and USIACs. The second day was overcast and fairly breezy in the morning but finally cleared to become a bright and sunny (but still very windy) afternoon. On the second day, targets stood 50m and 30m away. 50m proved to be rather difficult for certain members but overall, at the end of the day, almost everyone on the team hit a new PR.

Roy was especially impressive in her first ever tournament. “It was really fun. It was a good experience for me. I look forward to the next tournament,” said Roy.

“I’m impressed by Monika’s performance,” Spacht proudly said after the tournament. “Very impressed.”

In the end, CSU Long Beach female archers Carissa Dragan and Stephanie Gilmore claimed the first two spots respectively but UC Berkeley claimed the next three in the order of Wu, Spacht, and Roy. On the men’s side, Saddleback’s Dakota Sinclair took first after being pursued by Chia and Rosario.

In addition to her bronze medal performance, Wu also garnered another Rookie of the Year award, this time for the state of California. After a slight confusion, Victor Chia won gold in the compound Masters 50+ division while Christine Chia won silver in her female junior compound division.

More impressively however, was the fact that in their first year of existence, UC Berkeley’s Roy, Spacht, and Wu gained the bragging right to call themselves the best female recurve team in the entire state of California.

“All of us shot well and gave strong performances. It was definitely a team effort that helped us get our names on that perpetual trophy,” exclaimed Wu. “UC Berkeley isn’t an up-and-coming squad anymore. We’re already here and we’ve just set camp. We intend to stay up here for a while. We sent that message out today loud and clear.”

In addition to the women’s first place trophy, UC Berkeley’s coed team also took home the gold after beating out an impressive CSU Long Beach team. The team, which is made up of Chia, Rosario, Spacht, and Wu, are not only the third best indoor recurve team, but the best outdoor recurve team also.

“We’re all freshmen. We’re going to be around for a while.” States Spacht.

Oh yeah. Watch out for us.

Barely a week after Nationals, the members of California Archery competed in the Los Angeles City Indoor Championships (UCLA Invite) that was held in the Pauley Pavilion at UCLA. Fatigue was definitely not an issue and the Cal Archers again showed what they are made out of.

Joining shooters from CSU Fullterton, UCLA, Claremont, and several other schools included women recurve shooters Catherine Wu, Andrea Spacht, Jennifer Chang, alumni compound shooter Victor Chia, men recurve shooters Keaton Chia and Steven Hendler, a promising up-and-coming club member. The stage was set for another breakout for Cal Archery.

As usual, all of shooters showed their flare and competitive edge. Hendler shot exceptionally well the first round, setting himself a new PR. With her family and friends watching, Spacht set the Pauley Pavilion on fire (not literally of course). Chang and K. Chia both shot excellently, with K. Chia coming close to setting his own new PR. V. Chia bounced back from his previous outing and showed the city of LA what he was really capable of.

This day, however, belonged to Wu. In her previous tournaments, she just missed out on first. This was not the case this time around. While setting a new PR in her first round, she captured the gold. Cal Archery now had gold in both recurve and compound indoor competition.

However, as Wu puts it, the best is yet to come.

With their first tourney under their belts, the Cal Archery shooters confidently strolled back into Tulare at the end of February for the biggest indoor tourney, the 2006 Indoor National Championships. The Nationals was a huge nation wide tournament that was held in several places over the course of a month where the nation’s best congregated in their respective areas to shoot it out.

This time around, more colleges showed up, including Stanford, UCLA, CSU Long Beach, CSU Fullerton, Claremont, Biola, University of Arizona, Texas A&M, USF, Cuesta, and yours truly, UCB. The stacks are higher this time as individuals shot for national ranking.

In Nationals, freshmen recurve shooters Andrea Spacht and Catherine Wu were now joined by senior Jennifer Chang. Denise Barnard was again the only representative for women’s compound while freshman Keaton Chia was the sole rep for men’s recurve.

Just as before, Cal Archery shooters shot out of the gate and after the first day of intense competition, all five competitors were tight in the race. In the end, the women’s recurve turned out to be an extremely tight race, with the top four competitors separated by less than 20 points totally. Wu managed to take third, barely losing to members of CSU Long Beach and University of Arizona.

Newcomer Chang was able to show flashes of potential. Both she and Spacht, who shot extremely well but fell just shy of the top five, will be vital to Cal Archery as they strive towards a number one ranking in the nation.

Barnard showed her usual flare and brilliance but just missed winning the women’s compound division. A huge rivalry is in the works as Cal Archery looks forward to the next time they meet CSU Long Beach.

Chia surprised everyone by shooting an awesome score for someone who was unable to practice prior to the competition.

“He’s one of the most consistent shooters that we have. His knowledge and understanding of how to shoot will make him a force to be reckoned with soon,” observes freshmen Wu.

In the entire nation, all five shooters were ranked top 50 with Wu holding the high of #19.

Concurrently with the Nationals, the Tulare Target Archers held their own tournament and Cal Archery had two participants, freshman Mike Rosario (recurve) and alumni compound shooter Victor Chia.

Chia had an outstanding outing despite having multiple equipment malfunctions. The TTA was really all about Rosario however. After a somewhat disappointing outing at State, Rosario proved once and for all that he is the real deal. He ended up walking out of Tulare with a silver medal hanging around his neck.

“We’re all proud of him. We knew that he was something special when he first started shooting last semester,” says the entire team.

During the weekend of January 7-8, 2006, members of the newly formed Cal Archery team traveled down to Tulare, California to compete in their first tournament ever, the 2006 California State Indoor Championships. Joining the company of some of the best collegiate as well as professional shooters from all around the state were freshmen recurve shooters Keaton Chia, Michael Rosario, Andrea Spacht, Catherine Wu (Captain), senior compound shooter Denise Barnard, and alumni compounder Victor Chia. For K. Chia, Wu, and Rosario, this was not only their first official tournament as members of Cal Archery, but their first tournament overall, having first picked up a bow in Fall 2005.

Other colleges present at the tourney included Stanford University, CSU Long Beach, CSU Fullerton, UCLA, and Claremont, all of which have long and prestigious archery records and traditions. However, even the presence of some of the best athletes in California could not intimidate the new Golden Bear archers.

Over two days of intense shooter, two shooters from Cal Archery emerged victorious. Barnard thoroughly thrashed the competition, shooting an amazing 1054 (out of 1200), defeating not only the defending champion, but also the entire CSU Long Beach female compound team whose compounds archers can boast a long reign of excellence.

While Barnard secured the gold medal, Wu had her hands full in the women’s recurve division. After shooting against members of CSU Long Beach and Stanford (who are ranked #3 in the nation) on the first day, she barely held onto second place. However, during the second day, she solidified her lead and in the end, made it to the podium to earn a silver medal with a score of 1001. Wu’s fellow teammate, Spacht, finished 7th in the competition.

On the men’s side, Chia and Rosario put up an excellent fight and gave the Stanford men a scare but ended up falling short, finishing in 7th and 14th respectively. Compounder and alum V. Chia also put up a fight and rightfully earned his 8th place finish.

In terms of teams, Cal Archery’s co-ed team earned the silver in team competition.

“We have an excellent nucleus of dedicated shooters that have yet to develop and reach their full potential. We already saw flashes of brilliance this weekend but the best is yet to come. The Golden Bears will be a dangerous force in the near future.” Says captain Wu as the team packs up to return home.