Twenty-six archers stood on the line with $57,000 in prize money on the line. Among them were world champions, past Vegas champions, and shoot off veterans. It was all the makings of one of the best shoot offs in Vegas history.
In the first end, arrows were scored with standard Vegas Scoring, and only one archer was eliminated. The scoring switched to the X ring counting as ten points and nine archers were eliminated, including favorites Jacob Marlow and Braden Gellenthien. Nine archers were cut in the next end, including the Lucky Dog, Remington Boyer, and Tim Hanley. That left just seven archers on the line.
These archers have shot nothing but tens for 99 arrows at this point. Yet three of them would shoot their first nines in a long time in the next end. One of the biggest upsets was when last year’s champion, Bodie Turner, was eliminated.
Kyle Douglas, Kris Schaff, Tim Jevsnik, and Mathias Fullerton were left on the line. With two arrows out of the bow, Jevsnik had two solid tens, but his third arrow flew wide and clearly was a nine. Fullerton also had a clear nine. Schaff and Douglas both had arrows that were close calls, but upon inspection both arrows were called tens, and they moved on.
Schaff and Douglas were now head-to-head for $57,000. On Schaff’s second arrow he shot a nine. Then Douglas shot a nine on his second arrow. Both anchored tens to close out the end, but the shoot off would continue because they tied with 29s. Then Douglas missed on his second arrow again, but Schaff had three strong shots for a 30.
“This is something I always dreamed of as a kid, and for it to become real is insane,’ Schaff said.
Championship Compound Open Podium
Kris Schaff
Kyle Douglas
Tim Jevsnik
The women’s compound shoot off featured Tanja Gellenthien and Paige Pearce—both shot 900s.
In the first end of scoring, neither of these competitors gave up a point. In the second end of their shoot off, Pearce missed the ten ring, and Gellenthien remained perfect—winning the 2023 Vegas Shoot.
“It’s obviously the biggest tournament of the year and the one that everyone wants to win,” Gellenthien said. “My mental game was to stay focused and run the routine that I do during practice because I know that’s what works.”
Championship Compound Female Podium
Tanja Gellenthien
Paige Pearce
Elisa Roner
Vegas 2022 Championship winners:
· Compound open: Kris Schaff
· Compound female: Tanja Gellenthien
· Compound senior: Mark Rubio
· Compound young adult: Dewey Hathaway
· Recurve male: Marcus Dalmeida
· Recurve female: Somin Park
· Recurve young adult: Osvaldo Ramirez
· Barebow: Jeremiah Jones
Check full results from The Vegas Shoot in 2023 here.