2024 Black Eagle⧸Darton Pro⧸Am ｜ Senior Pro

Welcome everyone to the 2024 Delta McKenzie ASA Pro-Am Tour, our second round of the season. It's the Black Eagle Darton Pro-Am here in Russell County, Alabama at Uchee Creek Campgrounds. And we are set for a spectacular day of archery. Hello everyone. Welcome to the broadcast booth. I'm Greg White sitting alongside Darren Christianberry, who last year finished second in your category. Now you're in the booth with me after what was a crazy rainy day yesterday. Yesterday's conditions were about as bad as you could ever want to shoot in as an archer. The babysitting your equipment is horrible. You know, you're shooting lenses, you're shooting clarifiers. It's just a rough day trying to keep everything dry. Scorecards were a mess, but today was as perfect as you could ask for because it was overcast. We had even lighting all day. We saw scores go up dramatically and we should be in store for a really good shoot-off today. We have six matches, all pro categories, on deck for you today. And let's take a look at the standings because the first match we're going to have here is senior pro category. And tell us, Darren, what is 410 points in relation to what we call par course? Yeah, we shoot 40 targets and qualifications. So if you shoot 40 10s, you have 400 points. Anything above 400 means you were hitting bonus rings throughout your round. So you can see Richard Owens hit bonus rings. He ended up with a 410. Jeff Hopkins, 402. David Powell was one under par with a 399. Scott Price, 98. Harold Kogar, 97. Only 13 points from top to bottom. So it's actually a pretty good race. So no guarantee who's going to win this one. And we keep track of those bonus rings during their qualification rounds. And so, for example, Richard Owens hit nine of those, but Jeff Hopkins hit 11. And that's important if we get to a tie towards the end of the match. So senior pros on deck, and this is our first of our unknown distance categories. Darren, tell us a little bit about the unknown. Yeah, the unknown distance, there's going to be a box out there, and everyone is just guessing the distance. They're using muscles. They're using definition of the target. They're using depth perception to figure out this distance. So there's no range finders allowed. It's all off practice and target recognition. So it's a very, very neat skill to have. And when you're successful at it, it is fun to do. So it's time now for our first pro pressure point shoot down. So here's PJ Reilly to welcome the archers to the field of play. All right, here we go. Let's get this started. We're going to start off with our senior pro division. Our fifth place qualifier with a score of 397 from Shinston, West Virginia, shooting for Darden, Harold Coger. And our fourth place qualifier with a score of 398 from Martinsburg, West Virginia, shooting for Matthews, Scott Price. In third place with a score of 399 from Columbia, Virginia, shooting for Elite, David Pyle. And our second place qualifier from Lacona, Iowa, shooting for Matthews, Jeff Hopkins, with a score of 402. And our number one qualifier with a score of 410 from Rose Hill, Virginia, shooting for Hoyt, Richard Owens. All right, so Richard Owens, our top scorer. And well, looking at the scores, you know, you have an eight point advantage, but well, Darren Christian-Berry, Mother Nature's throwing a little bit of something at us right now. Yeah, the wind is not a factor where we qualify at. It's swampy, it's big brush, it's a lot of undergrowth. Wind's not a factor. Here, we're in the wide open on the riverbank, and there is a hard wind hitting us right in the face here in the booth, so it's going to be left to right for the shooters. It will be a factor. Right now, it's not too bad, but we've had some big gusts, so I anticipate some arrows moving in this wind. Looking at Jeff Hopkins, shoots for Matthews. All right, gentlemen, we'll start your one minute now. And they have one minute on the clock to execute a shot. Now, they have their 10 minutes of judging beforehand, and you're going to see some umbrellas come into play. Tell us a little bit about why we're being obstructed by an umbrella. Yeah, that umbrella is for the wind we just mentioned. You've got to have it to try to keep the archer steady, try to keep the bow steady, try to minimize that movement of that arrow drift. Good look at Harold Kogar there. Unknown distance. Max distance is supposed to be 50 yards plus or minus, right? I mean, occasionally they can get them longer. They do, but it's not common. All right, let's look at those scoring rings. Eight for Richard, I believe. Correct. Next, we're going to go to Jeff Hopkins now. That first target you looked at was the Stan Mule deer. Now, we're on the Elevation Javelina. 12 for Jeff. He's making a move right off the bat. And then, we're going to move to the Shibuya Impala. That big fella right there is not who I want chasing me. Confident. So, that's going to score an eight. Next up is going to be the gold tip Russian boar, and that's going to be Scott Price. What a story Scott Price has. Yes. Coming back after eye surgery. Cancer on his left eyelid. Hard time seeing. Just like difficult for us here in these conditions. An eight. The light here is very flat. It's overcast. Every now and then, we see a ray maybe poke through. Yeah. We're watching the shoot off in the booth on a big screen TV here, and it's hard to see where these arrows are landing. So, called an upper. Good shot for Harold there. So, now what happens is the archers are going to move to the next target. So, for instance, you have Richard Owens, your number one qualifier, who starts off at the Stan Mule deer. He's going to rotate over to that second target, which is the Elevation Javelina, and the entire crew shifts. So, for Harold Kogar, who started on the Bowdoodle grazing doe, he's going to move to our first target, which is the Stan Mule deer. Now, they did have that 10 minutes of, you know, time to judge distance. So, how do they do it? They're going to write it down on a piece of paper, or is it just memory? They typically, and what I would do is I would write down what target I'm starting on. If I was starting on the Shibuya Impala, which is target number three, I'd write that one down first. I would just go down to the gold tip Russian boar, etc., etc., and I'd fill out my numbers, write my number to the side. I may put a plus or minus out there, depending on how my first one goes. I may want to make an adjustment. Did I hit low? Did I hit high? You know, you've got to get calibrated for different conditions, because this is totally different than where we qualify that. And there, the scores have changed. You can see that Owen's now with a four-point lead over Hopkins. Upper left-hand part of your screen, we're looking at Harold Kogar, who is... A.K.A. Digger. A.K.A. Digger. He's moved himself into third place, and if he called that upper, from our vantage point, it's hard for us to see the cone. It looks like he did call the upper. So, there's a cone that the archers can move from the back of the shooting box to the front of the shooting box. For what I've seen so far, he has no intention of finishing in fifth. He came in in fifth, no intention of finishing there. Back-to-back 12s for him. We can't tell you here in the senior pro category, which is a judging distance category, exactly what the length of the course is, but if you stick around, our next category is going to be senior known pro, followed by another couple of known pro categories, and we can tell you exactly the distance these targets are set at. He didn't like that. That was definitely a bobble for Hopkins. Gave back what he gained there on that first target, unfortunately. I'd like to have a dollar for every arrow he's shot in his life. You would be extremely rich. Yeah, I'd be a wealthy man. David Pyle with a 12. He shot that upper. Yeah, caught that upper. Tell us, when we talk about uppers, Darren, what are we talking about? Yeah, there's two 12s in play. The low 12, which you can see, I don't know, depending on which way the animal's facing, five o'clock, seven o'clock, it's always in play. You don't have to call it, but you do have the option to shoot that high ring, and if it is the upper 12, if you do shoot it, you have to call it. If you accidentally hit it, don't call it. It scores 10, and vice versa. If you call the upper and accidentally hit the lower, it scores a 10. It's now out of play. And of course, keep in mind, the 14 is in play as well, so if someone wants to get really gutsy, and we definitely expect to see that in some of the matches coming up in the women's known pro category, which would be our third match of the day. Paige Pierce is on a seven-run win streak, and she comes in in fourth place, so the chances that Paige Pierce is going to be gunning for 14, I think, is pretty high. Yeah, yeah. If she wants to keep that streak going, she's, what, 10 points behind the leader, I think? You know, that's two 14s and a 12. Is it common? Yeah, it can happen. Is it likely? Eh, very likely with her, but this win could be a little bit of a factor there. So now, our fifth place archer coming in, Harold Kogar, is now in third place at a 421. So Owens continues to lead 428, then Hopkins at a 22, Kogar at a 21, and then we have Pilot at 19 and Price at 415. Good look at Richard Owen there. He survived the rain in big fashion yesterday. He shot eight up in the torrential downpour, which was a really, really solid round. And he gets a nice solid 10 ring on that one. And, you know, for us here at Competition Archery Media, Darren, normally after our first day of competition, we interview the leaders of each class, and it was so much rain that it really, it had an effect on our cameras, and we just didn't have the resources to do it. Our stuff started to break down. It was bad. I mean, it just, everything we had was soaked. The score cards were a mess. It's just, oh, it's the worst conditions you can have. All right, so. Was that up or called? Yeah, so that's the Stan Mule deer, and it was called. Scott Price. What an absolute legend. What a story. He talks about Jeff Hopkins being one of his best friends, and they have never shot together in a shoot down before. So Price is just happy to be here. Richard Owen still enjoying a six-point lead. Good looking at Richard again, shooting those long back bars. Such a, not normal, unorthodox maybe, but you see a few more of those sets out there now. Good 10 for him on that long impala. 10 on the Russian boar. Owen's coming in steady so far. He's got 8, 10, 10, so he's given two points back to the field in terms of that par score, but right now you've got to look at Kogar and how aggressive. Is that Hopkins again there? Yep. That guy on that gold, is that that gold tip Russian boar for Hopkins? Another 12. So he gets two, gives it, he gives it back, and now gets another two. He's not going to go away, I promise you he's not. Yeah, if there's anybody who knows how to play this game, and this is the thing, there's one thing if you can range find and you can just set your marks, but in this game you've got to know when to take the risks, right? I shot right next to Jeff again, and I've said it before on the broadcast if you've listened, but Jeff hits the stuff that nobody else does, and he did today. I mean, he stepped up to a deer, you know, 50 yard deer, probably 12. You know, he goes over to a wolverine that's close to 50, if not 50, 12. You can 12 those, but you're not supposed to, and he always does. Yeah, yeah. So that's why you can never count him out, because he hits the stuff most people don't. All right, so of our five regulation targets, we're now on target number four, and it moves that quickly, but Darren, there is the possibility of a last chance, last chance archery, last chance arrow, and how do we get that, and who's going to shoot that? We're going to shoot five regulation arrows here, and then anybody within 10 points of the leader will be eligible to shoot the sixth and final last chance, last chance arrow. So anything can happen. If you're within four points of the leader, and you get one more chance, you got to just let it all hang out there and go for that 14. So all right, so right side of the field, Jeff Hopkins is already at full draw, and he's getting after it, because the one minute clock has started, as we wait for these two that are on our stand mule deer and the elevation javelina. That's a good look there on that split screen. David Pyle's at full draw, ready to go on the muley. I think some of that right stuff there's got to be wind for him. It's got to be. Scott went for the 14. I look like he did. He just missed it. That's such a small ring to shoot at, too. It's like no matter how much you look through the binos, or what we call glassing it, sometimes it just doesn't hit. Well, being 11 points behind the leader, two targets to go, I really don't blame him. He's tied for fourth, tied for fifth. No place to go but up. You know, you can't finish worse than fifth, so good job, Scott. So close. It's got to be an eight for him, and it was funny, too, Darren, because I asked Scott Price. He said, look, I'm just thankful being here after all the health issues I've had. I said, really? If you find yourself in third or close to a podium, you're not going to go for it? He's like, well, yeah. Competitive spirit never goes away, and for Price, he thinks he's probably the third oldest shooter in the field, 64 years old. I guess I didn't realize that. I've known these guys for so long, it's hard to imagine that they can be in their mid-60s now. That would mean you're in your, we're not talking about it, celebrating the 24th anniversary of my 29th birthday. Do that math. Senior pro, our fourth arrow has been shot as we are wrapping up our scoring here. Still four points between Richard and Jeff. If Jeff can close the gap a little bit more by hitting a 12 on the next one, that's a close arrow right there. That's a clean cut 12, though. That's really solid lines for a foam target right there. Yeah, it is, so it looks to us pretty clear to me, anyway, that wouldn't necessarily be it. It's got to contact that line at some point, even if it pulls it in there. We actually had an arrow call in the range today. When I looked at it from the top, there's no way that arrow can be in. When I looked at it from the bottom to shine the light on it, I was like, there's no way I can call that arrow out. We're getting one view right here. We're looking at a flat screen, straight on. It was just out, but sometimes they look out and they can be still touching or rolling that line. It's hard to go off of one view. If I would have just had one look at that arrow today, I definitely would have called it out, the second look, and there was no way you could call it out. Now there's got to be some strategy that's going to play in for Hopkins right there. You're actually four points back as we reset the scores, 448 to 444. Hopkins has more bonus rings than Owens does, who we're looking at here in the white jersey. For Jeff Hopkins, he's got to really think about his strategy on, is it time to go for a 14? I can tell you that the Stan Mule Deer is not the closest target that we have on the range. There's a good look at Jeff right there. He really needs a... Oh, that fired quick and he went right underneath of it. That eight will be detrimental depending on what Richard does. Oh, the wind just picked up as well. You can see it just over the shoulder of Scott Price. Good solid. Yeah. Solid 10. And middle. 10. Yeah. So Richard's going to take a six point lead into the final arrow. All right. So we're going to go to Jeff Hopkins, who was on that Stan Mule Deer. Good look over the shoulder of David Powell. He shot a 10. So we know that Hopkins is in for an eight. He probably needed one more yard on his sight right there. We're actually experiencing just a massive gust of wind and this is what we're... So good timing in terms of the archers weren't at full draw where it's scoring right now, but this is what some archers can be in for. And this is where that one minute to shoot your arrow here in ASA could be really beneficial to some archers. Yeah. Because if you're full draw and that wind gust comes in and starts moving you all over the target, your mind starts going, oh crap, do I have enough time? Should I let down? That's a good 10 there by Scott Price. Especially after the length of that hold. Let's see how this all shakes out with the math, but I know Richard and Jeff will shoot the sixth arrow. And then up to Digger, huh? Kogar, he's been making some moves since he got here in fifth place. He's actually sitting in third. And that's 10 for him. A little too low. Going for it though. Calling that upper. If you're just joining us, this is our second round of the 2024 Delta McKenzie ASA Pro-Am Tour here. It's the Black Eagle Darton Pro-Am. Redouche Creek for the pro pressure point shoot down. We've gone through our five regulation arrows in senior pro category. And now we're going to have to determine who is within 10 points of the leader as we go to our last chance archery, last chance arrow. Scott Price in fourth place. David Pyle in fifth place. I think those two archers are going to be out of it. So Richard Owens with the commanding lead. And I think it's going to be just Jeff Hopkins and Richard Owens. And Harold Kogar. And Harold Kogar. That's right. Yeah. Sorry. Harold had moved up to third. Yep. Richard's in a good spot. Having a six point lead with just the 14 ring in play. Meaning if Richard shoots a 10 and somebody shoots a 14, they can't catch him. So he's in a really good spot. Six points, six points with one arrow to go. I would feel pretty good about myself right now. Yeah. You're in the driver's seat, right? All you really got to do is just think center. You get to shoot last. So if those guys do hit a ring, all you have to do is hit that big 10 ring, which when you have to hit a 10, it's not that super easy, but as many arrows as these guys shooting as comfortable as they are shooting at these rings, hitting a 10 shouldn't be too bad unless Scott really backs them up. All right. So he's going to, they're actually going to be shooting the hyena. That's going to be the last chance archery. Yep. It is. All right. So from your experience, Darren Christian, very size of the scoring range. Cause they do very slightly. Yeah. I think the 10 rings right at five inches. I think it's right at five inches, but the 12 rings are just not much bigger than a U S 50 cent piece or a half dollar. I don't know the exact measurement of it, but I know if you miss it by a yard, you might clip the line if it's around 40 yards. But basically if I was going to say yardage here every, every yard you're off is about an inch on the target. So you need to be within one yard to ensure you're going to hit these bonus rings. All right. So as they're setting the targets, there's two things. Number one, they're picking a random spot on the field of play to set this target up. Additionally, Scott, who's in charge, all this stuff for ASA is really, he puts the archers at a random place as well on the range. So they're not shooting from the shooting boxes that they were. So now they're given an opportunity to judge yardage. Now this is very important though, because, you know, as part of the integrity of the sport, as we see Jeff Hopkins changing his site there, can anybody like look at his site or is it no, you have to block like the yardages. I think it's actually a written rule. I don't know if it's ASA or IBO, but there is a written rule where you have to have a yardage. You have to have your site tape covered. Yeah. To be, if you were standing over someone's shoulder, looking at them, set their site. That's a, I would call it unsportsmanlike conduct. So a hundred percent, you're not supposed to do that. Or lean to somebody, say, Darren, what'd you get? Yeah. That's how far you think this is. You'll hear that. That's highly frowned upon in the, in the known categories where you have a you'll hear that often. Yeah. Hey, what'd you get? I'm just curious. What'd you get? You know, just trying to check with your group to see, but you know, listen in the rain, you can see that umbrellas are used here, even in the wind, but in the rain, umbrellas were used to try to protect some equipment. I mean, you know, it helps to be a nice person in a good group. That's friendly. So you definitely get umbrellas because it was, it was something else yesterday. Yeah. You need to, you need help when there's days, like days like yesterday, you have to have assistance out there because if not, you're miserable. All right. So Harold Kogar has got a 451 guaranteed third place. It's the last chance, archery last chance arrow. Chances are Kogar's just going for the 14. You got nothing to lose at this point. This is 14 or nothing right here. This is a good target to shoot too. You can see those black dots all around those rings. Great references at full draw. Very easy to aim at this target. He can probably see, I don't know what the distance is because I can't see the target, but he can probably see that 14 ring through his scope when he gets to full draw if I had to guess. He's waiting on that breeze to settle down. So much so, unfortunately our signage for the last chance, archery last chance arrow had to be moved because they don't want it to start blowing around. All right. So he's got one minute here. If I'm him, if I'm Kogar, I'm just chilling. I'm going to see if this wind kind of calms down for a moment. It's actually steady to picking up. So he's eventually going to have to come to full draw and then either aim left or bubble over a little bit. He's going to have to do something to aim left of that ring to hit it. And that's exactly what you were talking about, at least from our camera view. If you look on the screen, there's a lot of definition. Oh, and you can see there's sunlight just poked right through it and just highlighted it. Yeah. He's, he's turned his light back on. So he's got to be down to like 20 some seconds now. Gotta be. All right. Well, it is what it is. You got to let it fly. Keith's holding his umbrella, but someone needs to have his clock too, to make sure he fires it within that one minute. 14 or nothing. It's that upper left-hand smallest ring. Keep pulling. Keep pulling bud. There you go. Well done hero. Well done. I don't know if Mike's making fun of him. He must've went at the 12. Yeah, I guess he went for that 12, just dropped a little bit low and he was able to catch the eight line. There is that line that defines the eight ring. And if he was outside of that, it would have been a five. So you can see the 14 ring in the upper left-hand corner. If you follow that outer line, that's just on the top of that goes all the way around. That's that eight ring. Yeah. The hardest thing I think for a lot of people that are new to 3d archery is seeing the core, the core line itself. Cause those are replaceable cores. They don't really count. So you got to look at the scoring. So here goes Hopkins. Who's six points back. You know, I got to think in there. Harold may have been shooting at that 12 because he knows how aggressive Jeff is. If Jeff shoots a five here, he'll get second place. And that hit, one of the things to note as Hopkins let that fly and he's going to get an eight on that one. He shoots a pinky release, which is really an interesting release where he's actually pulling through the shot and allowing his pinky to set that release off. And it looked like at least for this competition, that might've been just a little too hot. You can see the release, his thumb is on a barrel, but that's just holding the release. It almost looked like it surprised him really bad. I think Richard just needs five points to win this thing. If he hits this animal, he's going to win this tournament. So if you're ready, cause Jeff moves to four 60 with that eight. Yeah. Richard needs two points. So if he hits this animal anywhere, he wins this tournament for Richard Owens coming in here with eight point lead and he's able to fight off his competition. And now with the possibility of taking home the title, the Rose hill, Virginia native resident pulls back it's foam and a nice center 10. And that's your champ of black Eagle dart and pro-am in our senior pro category, second place and family members in attendance, Joe Pitt and Tony Tazza according to him, his buddies. That's right. You want K 50 way back in the day. Second in 2021 and the senior pro-am and third in 2023 now comes out and wins it all. What a day for Richard Owens. There's Tony Tazza. He's new to this winning stuff. We'll get him over to get on the headset and we can have a conversation with him in tricky conditions. And with other archers getting after that 12 ring, it gets a nice win for Hoyt as well. Well, Richard, you wanted us to chat with you and here you are. Congratulations. What an outstanding win for you. How are you feeling? I just can't believe it. I want to thank the Lord first for helping me this weekend. It's been a long time coming up shot this since 2003 and put a lot of time in it. Haven't been shooting great at home and I got here and the rain and stuff was just terrible, but I don't know. I shot good in it and I don't know. Lord just wanted me to win it. I guess Richard, a big guy named Jeff Hopkins told me years ago that if you want to win out here, you've got to catch some breaks. And with the weather yesterday, pretty much perfect shooting conditions today, I would think you had to catch some breaks along the way. Yeah, I started, I normally shoot all uppers and I figured out real fast after about five targets in the rain that I was losing yardage and I was shooting low. So I just started calling lowers and started hitting them and shooting big numbers and still hitting the lowers. So if I hadn't done that, I wouldn't have made it. Well, buddy, congratulations. A well-deserved win. We'll, we'll see you at the next one. All right. Thanks. All right. So there's your champion in the senior pro category. Richard Owens takes home the number one plate. More archery coming at you from the Black Eagle Darden Pro-Am right here in Ooch Creek. Stay with It was how light and how fast. The X10 is the most successful arrow in competitive archery history, accounting for far more medals than any other individual piece of sporting equipment in Olympic history. Easton introduces the latest innovation to the X10 lineup, the four millimeter Parallel Pro. 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