Just four short days after the BTB National 3D Open in Fresno, California, 19 Break The Barriers archers made their way to The 2021 Vegas Shoot Championship, to compete in The Vegas Shoot and the BTB Pro-Am.
Break The Barriers is an international non-profit organization dedicated to accelerating awareness, understanding, acceptance and education for all people with varying abilities, including military members. BTB currently works with over 10,000 individuals weekly from around the world, it offers programs in 27 different sports and archery is one of them. In fact, their archery program is the largest inclusive archery program in the United States.
Each of the 19 BTB archers shot in their own Championship divisions at The Vegas Shoot as well as the BTB Pro-Am team invitational which matched a professional archer with a BTB Archer.
The Pro-Am Team Team Invitational round was the night cap on Thursday evening, directly following the Championship Daily 300 Shoot-Off. The format was a 12-arrow Vegas round, with two practice ends, and four competition ends. The scores for the BTB archers were prorated, starting at 280/10 rounds x the 4 rounds they shot. Their scores were then added in with the Pro's to get the final team score. Prize money was awarded to the Pro archers on the four highest scoring teams.
The list of participating Pro Archers included:
Linda Ochoa Anderson
Steve Anderson
James Ball
Henry Bass
Jase Boils
Jesse Broadwater
Nathan Brooks
Gaius Carter
Darrin Christenberry
Tim Gillingham
Steve Marsh
Kevin Mather
Emily McCarthy
Jeremiah McConnell
Alexis Ruiz
Will Stacey
Donnie Thacker
Shane Wills
Kendall Woody
The results of the invitational:
1st Place - Darrin Christenberry & Addison Jones
2nd Place - Emily McCarthy & Jared Schmidt
3rd Place - Alexis Ruiz & Arthur McClaurin
4th Place - Tim Gillingham & Ray Duarte
Along with the shoot-off, attendees were treated to a heart-warming recognition ceremony for retired Vietnam Veteran, John Raya. Mr. Raya served in the Marine Corps during the Vietnam War on the Grave Registry and had the harrowing duty of recovering the bodies of his fellow fallen military members and reuniting them with their grieving families.
After his wartime duty in Vietnam, Raya went on to serve another twelve years in the Marines and worked his way up to a Master Sergeant, before his retirement.
Jesse Broadwater presented the Breaking The Barriers Heroic Military Award to Mr. Raya for his war-time service in the Marines. Mr. Raya has never been formally recognized by the U.S. Government for his service.
Find more information on Break The Barriers here.