Eight against the world.

The season-long preparations for the world's largest archery tournament paid off the Grand Canyon University Club Archery Team after three of their archers placed 7^th or higher in their respective categories in the Collegiate Division of Vegas Shoot 2023 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The eight Lopes took part in the three-day tournament-one that brings 4000 archers from around the globe annually to (and literally overtakes the halls of) the South Point Hotel and Casino on the far southern end of the Las Vegas Strip. In addition to their places, two Lopes set new personal bests during the event.

The Lopes benefited from the experience of attending last year's tournament, and excelled in the 2023 version-despite facing some extra challenges in this year's preparation due to fortified rosters.

"Everyone did really well in Vegas, even though we were more underprepared than last year," said Lopes' Student Head Coach Fletcher Bennett. "With more people coming to practice this year, we had less time to shoot individually, and missed more practices to make sure we all got our schoolwork done. All in all, though, we were pretty pleased with what we accomplished."

Two returners, senior Sequoia Ayers and sophomore Keegan Spurlock, set the tone for the Lopes throughout the tournament. Both competing in the event for the second time, Ayers set two personal tournament records in recurve barebow, earning a spot in the 3^rd flight for Sunday's action. Spurlock moved up from 9^th place after Friday's action to 6^th on Saturday while also earning a Flight 3 berth for Sunday, where he shot only 9's and 10's. Both finished 6^th in the Collegiate Divisions. Meanwhile, while competing in just her second tournament of any kind, senior newcomer Tiani Kow made a name for herself, finishing 7^th after Saturday's close of the collegiate bowhunter female division, and earning a spot in the latest flights on Sunday afternoon.

The ones that made a quiet but powerful splash, though, were a pair of newcomers. Lopes' junior Jacob Baker got out of the gates slowly with a 143 score in the recurve barebow Friday, then skyrocketed to a 201 score Saturday to grab a spot in Sunday's 7^th flight. Lopes' sophomore Tim Ultsler wasn't even shooting competitively in bowhunter until a couple of months ago, yet not only showed enough promise to earn a spot in the van to Nevada, but set personal bests both Friday and Saturday at the tournament.

"Keegan's 6th-place performance with just shooting 90 arrows per week shows the potential for us to get there," said Bennett. "Those that we competed against shoot 90 arrows per day, much more than us, so we just need to carve out time to get there. The mental pressure of the tournament got to and affected us-especially the newcomers-so we'll have to focus on preparing better for that tournament mindset for next year."

The results for all Lopes' participants are below:

NAME	CATEGORY	COLLEGIATE FINISH	FRI SCORE	SAT SCORE	SUN SCORE	OVERALL	FLIGHT/PLACE
	BOWHUNTER
Keegan Spurlock	Male	6th	284	289	287	860	3/21st
Tiani Kow	Female	7th	271	275	265	811	6/29th
Fletcher Bennett	Male	16th	259	262	249	770	8/30th
Tim Utsler	Male	18th	251	252	251	754	9/T-24th
Sarah Baugh	Female	16th	260	234	248	742	10/3rd
	RECURVE BAREBOW
Sequoia Ayers	Female	6th	212	221	205	638	3/29th
Jacob Baker	Male	11th	143	201	180	524	7/6th
Paige Sundelius	Female	14th	164	136	174	457	8/7th