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Published: 17 May 2017

The NTU Archery team comes home with hardware from the United States Intercollegiate Archery Championship (USIAC) at the Easton/NFAA Complex, Yankton, South Dakota from May 10-14, 2017. Keanu Jones from (Flagstaff, AZ) earned top honors with his gold medal performance against H. Sellier from UC-Irvine (CA). Mr. Jones out dueled Sellier with a 6-4 match win to claim the top spot in the Basic Bow Men category. The Basic Bow Men’s Team of Keanu Jones, Shawndell Francis (Ramah, NM), Steven Bitah (Ojo Encino, NM), dropped their match against UC-Irvine to settle for the Silver medal. The NTU Women’s Bowhunter team, of Carmelita Allen, Maukenzi Moore & Michelle McCarthy, fell to Mississippi College (MS) in the Bronze medal match, 6-0.

In the Olympic round (OR) brackets, men’s bowhunter-Derrick Morgan beat Trevor Adams (Madisonville Community College, KY), 120-115, but later fell to C. Dixon (University of Cumberlands, KY), 121-137. In the women bowhunter division, Michelle McCarthy was ousted by M. Hamilton (Mississippi College), 103-127. Camelita Allen bested N. McGloster from (Mississippi College), 103-94, then lost to S. Rayburn (University of Cumberlands), 102-126. Maukenzi Moore defeated L. Bell (University of Wisconsin-Stephens Point), 112-106, then was ousted by H. Golden (University of Cumberlands), 109-129. In the basic bow men’s category, Shawndell Francis bested fellow NTU teammate Steven Bitah, 6-0. Mr. Francis fell to H. Sellier (University of California-Irvine), 6-0. Keanu Jones ousted S. Hirano (WUG), 6-2 match points to set up the gold medal match the next day.

Medal winners:

• NTU Archery #5 Finish in medal count
• Gold Medal Individual, Basic Bow Men - Keanu Jones (BFA major)
• Silver Medal Team, Basic Bow - Steven Bitah (Electrical certificate graduate), Keanu Jones & Shawndell Francis (Welding major)

Best New Archer:

• Women’s Bowhunter - Michelle McCarthy (Cuba, NM), BS Environmental Science major
• Women’s Bowhunter - Carmelita Allen,
• Men’s Bowhunter - Derrick Morgan (Mariano Lake, NM), Culinary Art major
• Men’s Basic Bow - Keanu Jones
• Men’s Basic Bow - Steven Bitah

All-Americans:

• Basic Bow - Keanu Jones
• Basic Bow - Steven Bitah

Coach Henderson comments, “The USIAC is good, end of year competition and was a great experience for my team as most have never been to the outdoor, target nationals. Dex Morgan shot well during qualifying but a wind aided miss costed him in the second round as he lost by 11 point during individuals. Both men and women bow hunter categories are tough competitions. Keanu Jones worked hard and it paid off as he outdueled some experienced archers to win gold. I am proud of our medal count as we finished for 5th place in total medals and how this team demonstrated resolve to finish the year strong. It takes a lot of time and dedication to be a student-athlete because of academic commitments and to find time to practice. I commend them for staying on course in the classroom and with archery. Most of the team experienced the outdoor competition for the first time, so we will learn from this experience and get better. The team is young and I hope they will be back in school for academics and some archery competitions”.

Questions about NTU Archery contact Coach Henderson @ 505-786-4300 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..