This year we once again had the privilege of sending our top archers to compete at Student Nationals, hosted by UCC at Nemo Rangers. Numerous NUIG students progressed through the ranks during Saturday’s 60-arrow qualification round.
Mary Aherne shot her new PB and came 3rd in the overall competition after out-shooting her opponents in head-to-heads. Andrew Bollard and Josh Coughlan went head-to-head in the recurve men’s individual competitions. It was a close match but Vice Captain Josh won out and progressed on to shoot against Michael Irwin, the eventual 1st place winner of the men’s recurve division.
Most of our medals were won through the team brackets. The team competitions consisted of a team of the archers from each category representing their club and all shot two arrows towards the team score. After our Barebow Team progressed to the gold medal match and tied with MU, it went into a one arrow shoot-off. A full hall watched as Conor O’Beolain, Mark Harrington and Niamh Meyler shot an arrow each at a 40cm target. Unfortunately, MU got the better of us that time but we still went home with three silver medals.
Our dedication to the sport showed when we won 2nd place in Recurve, Compound and Barebow Team as well as an incredibly impressive 1st place in Mixed Team. A testament to the quality and versatility of our club. After two nights in Cork we were on our way home, trophies in hand.
Results:
1st place - Mixed Team: Ruairi O'Loughlin, James Burke, Conor Ó Beoláin
2nd place - Recurve Team: Conor Ó Beoláin, Niamh Meyler, Mark Harrington
2nd place - Compound Team: Ruairi O'Loughlin, Patrick Hurley
2nd place - Barebow Team: Mark Walsh, James Burke, Mary Aherne
3rd place Women’s Recurve – Mary Aherne
3rd place Men’s Compound – Ruairi O’Loughlin
Thanks to everyone at UCC for a great event and congrats to all our archers on another great competition!