BOND BRINGS HOME SILVER FROM VEGAS SHOOT

Southeastern Illinois College’s Eli Bond of Galatia and Isaiah Conkle of Cave-In-Rock traveled to Las Vegas Feb. 8-10 to compete in the annual Vegas Shoot. Both students competed in the Bowhunter division. Bond found success in the U.S. Collegiate Archery Association (USCA) portion of the shoot and brought home silver for SIC.

Bond and Conkle shot for three days in Vegas. Each of these days consisted of a 300 round. The archers had to shoot 10 rounds of three arrows. The maximum score for each arrow is 10.

After the first two days of shooting, the archers were then grouped into flights based on their score. This meant they were shooting directly beside their closest competition. In addition to shooting the regular 300 round, Bond also shot the collegiate portion during the evening of the first day in Vegas. This was a grueling competition as Bond competed against the top seven collegiate archers in the nation. One point stood between him and gold.

“Winning second place was monumental for me because I have only been shooting indoor archery for just over a year,” said Bond. “Any one of us competing that night was plenty capable of taking home the gold medal. It was intense but so fun!”

Overall Bond finished 23rd in Flight 1 and Conkle finished 28th in Flight 3. They competed against over 300 of the top indoor archers in not only the nation, but the world.

“The Vegas shoot is an icon for any serious archer,” said Head Archery Coach, Alli Armstrong. “I am so proud of Isaiah and Eli, they certainly held their own in what is a no error, highly intense competition.”

The first Vegas shoot was held at the Sahara Hotel in 1962. Since then, the shoot has grown into the largest single venue indoor archery tournament in the world. Over 3,500 archers attend this event every year.

To learn more about SIC’s archery team and when the indoor center and outdoor range are open to the public, visit www.sic.edu/archery.

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