Oct 17, 2013 - Oglala Lakota College Wins Four National Championship Trophies in Archery by Joe Flood

In their first season as members of the US Collegiate Archery Association, Oglala Lakota College took home four national championship trophies from the 3D Target National Championships hosted by the University of Missouri at Columbia.

Competing in the basic bow category with traditional bows, OLC won the women’s team round, the men’s team round, and took runner-up in the mixed gender team competitions.

Individually, OLC’s Ray Hernandez won the men’s basic bow national championship and Michelle LeBeau won the women’s national championship. On the men’s side, OLC’s men’s captain Nick Gibbons finished right behind Hernandez for second, while on the women’s side women’s captain Elaine Yellowhorse took second, and Cammie Griffith came in third.

OLC has competed against other Native colleges for years, like New Mexico’s Navajo Technical (which took 1st and 3rd in the men’s recurve category), but this was their first season competing at the national level.

The wins followed OLC sweeping the men’s and women’s team and individual competitions in the basic bow category at the North Regional championships three weeks ago at Wayne State College in Nebraska.

This was the third year the USCA has had a hunting-style 3D animal target course, featuring 20 targets spread out over a wooded, quarter-mile course at Prairie Grove Shooting Sports in Columbia MO. In addition the the basic (ie traditional) category, a total of 114 shooters competed in compound, recurve and compound bow hunter categories. The two-day shoot took place this Saturday and Sunday.