Feb 11, 2019 – It was an all gold showing for Mount Marty College at the 2019 US Intercollegiate Indoor National Championships taking place in Las Vegas, NV this weekend. Lancers McKenna Cooley (So/ Henderson, NV), Brianna Notebaert (Fr/Palmyra, NY) and Carson Sapp (Fr/ Cairo, GA) dominated individual and team divisions to bring back three gold medals to Yankton, SD. Twenty-three colleges and universities were represented at this collegiate championship; each archer having qualified to compete at this event by raking in the top 8 in their division across the country. This event was held in conjunction with The Vegas Shoot, the largest indoor tournament in the world, adding to the excitement and intensity of the experience for the Lancers.
Cooley, the number one qualifying seed, shot her way to the gold medal match, winning her second consecutive indoor championship title in the women’s recurve division against the University of California Irvine. Sapp, also a number one seed, made it to the gold medal match in the men’s compound division and won in a one-arrow shootoff against Union College. Sapp and Notebaert paired up to compete in the mixed compound team matches to bring home a third gold medal.
Collegiate national championships also rank school standings based on medal wins to recognize the best overall college teams. With their multiple medal wins, Mount Marty College earned a title as the second best college in the country in the indoor competition format.
This was not the first gold medal match for Sapp this indoor season, having started the year competing at the Archery Indoor World Series in Nimes, France with a championships win in the junior compound men’s division. Sapp has a history of success at the Vegas Shoot as well, being the first junior compound archer to achieve a perfect score two years prior. “This year Vegas was pretty different from years past, with adding the USCA Indoor Nationals and helping the NFAA (tournament host) and at the Mount Marty booth. It made for a busy weekend on and off the shooting line, but well worth it! I felt confident going into the head-to-head matches with the experience at USA Archery Indoor Nationals and traveling to Nimes where we shot the same style of competition. The event added a few more arrows to shoot for the weekend but luckily I was the most prepared I could be and it ended with the team taking home the two individual gold, team mixed gold and 2ndplace overall title.”
Asked about her first experience representing Mount Marty in head-to-head matches, Notebaert replied, “I definitely felt like I was under more pressure than in other matches because I wasn’t only competing for myself, but also for my team.” The team experience was definitely present for all archers on the line as Cooley commented, “I learned that my school has the loudest cheering section and we like to show it. It made me excited for more matches because I know my team is behind me.” Echoing that sentiment and looking ahead to the rest of the season Sapp added, “My biggest takeaway from this event would be to enjoy and thrive off the team atmosphere supporting you. There aren’t many programs out there that have what Mount Marty does. We are able to have a tight knit group of people who not only train with each other, but also support each other in academic work and everyday events. This is a strong enough support system that can be relied on in tournament situations throughout the rest of the year as we head into outdoor season competition.”
Looking ahead, Notebaert reflected on her plans “Next up is NFAA Indoor Nationals in Cincinnati for myself and I will be sticking to my arrow counts to prepare. As a team we will be taking on outdoor regionals together and I couldn’t be more excited!”
For more information regarding the Mount Marty College Lancer Archery Team contact Coach Jos at Jos@neyac.org or 605-260-9282