Awards/Titles

USA Archery NTS Level 2 Instructor

2016-2019 UCSD Archery Competitive Team Member

2017-2019 Treasurer

2018 National Outdoor Collegiate Championship Barebow Mixed Team Bronze

2018 Western Regionals Barebow Mixed Team Gold

2018 Western Regionals Female Recurve Team Silver

2017 National Outdoor Collegiate Championship Barebow Mixed Team Bronze

Spotlight

As a commuter student during her time at UCSD, Abby started her freshman year off with a search for new friends and new activities. Upon discovering Sun God Archery, she knew the club would be the perfect place for both, and quickly became an integral part of the club’s social life and team.

From her time on the team, Abby’s fondest memory was at Westies 2018. Since she decided to shoot in both the barebow and recurve divisions at that competition, she was able to compete with more of her friends on the team. Though keeping up with both divisions was stressful at the time, she enjoyed the team rounds the most and will miss the energy and hype that always came with them. She’s grateful to the friends who supported me with each shot and for making that tournament one of the best memories she has from her time with SGA.

Like many of our competitive archers though, Abby struggled with performance anxiety. There were times when she had trouble feeling confident in her shot process, especially during competitions. However, through personal determination and the support of her teammates and coaches, she gradually learned to focus on enjoying archery for the experience of shooting with her friends rather than the location of her arrows on the target. Learning to let go of the need to succeed took a lot of pressure off her, and helped her grow both in and out of archery.

Given that, it’s no surprise that Abby’s most important piece of advice for new shooters is to have compassion for themselves. She understands that it can be easy to fall into a rut when you don’t progress at the rate you’d like, but emphasizes that there is nothing wrong with struggle--especially in a sport like archery that requires such mental strength. To Abby, it’s most important for new archers to enjoy archery for the sport and the people they meet in it, rather than winning medals and being the best. Overcoming the challenges of competition can be rewarding, but always take the time to work on your own shot process and grow at your own pace. And lastly, she reminds new archers to always have fun.

After she graduates, Abby will be attending SDSU for a Master’s in Creative Writing. We hope that as long as she’s in San Diego, she’ll continue to visit and never fail to make us laugh with her Spongebob jokes and references.

We wish her all the best, and congratulations on graduating!