Duo hits 12th place at NCAA tourney

UCLA’s archery club is no longer just
“recreational.”

A team of two students finished 12th overall at the National
Championship in Carbondale, Ill., held May 14-17. In just its
second season of existence, great coaching has helped put the
archery club on the national map, but player commitment has been
the key.

“I look for players with that desire; for one must have
the mental edge to succeed in archery,” coach Nikki Stull
said.

In a sport that requires an enormous amount of thinking, the
sport also gives these athletes the chance to improve
academically.

“Archery has taught me a lot about myself. It has helped
me become a much better disciplinarian because the sport is about
competing with yourself, your mind,” said junior Ben Raffi,
who joined the sport as “an experiment.”

The archery club has been built on commitment ““ the
coaches and athletes volunteer their participation.

The sport has also had help from fundraisers Jim Easton, Bill
Leven and Chad Brown.

Kate Anderson and Mark Walberg, who became archers 15 months
ago, stood out at the Intercollegiate Archery Championship. Neither
had practiced archery until they took a recreational course at the
Wooden Center.

Sophomore Anderson finished ninth among women while graduate
student Walberg tied for ninth place in the men’s division.
Anderson, after experimenting with the sport, has embraced it
wholeheartedly.

“I became addicted to the competition. it’s fun for
me; the more I shoot the better I get,” she said.

“This sport is great, you can travel, and there’s
cool people to meet,” said Walberg, who is motivated by his
losses.

“What really keeps me going is not winning,” he
said.

Walberg, who sustained a lower back injury as a hockey player,
still has the ability to perform at a high level.

Both athletes’ personal dedication and the testimony of
their coach demonstrate the appeal of archery.