Huge crowds expected for archery tournament at Summit Inn
Thousands of people are expected to attend the second annual Organization of Professional Archery (OPA) Invitational tournament at the Historic Summit Inn in Farmington this coming weekend.
Admission is free for all three days of the event from Friday through Sunday to watch men and women archers in invited expert and open amateur classes compete for cash prizes and young adult and youth classes compete for bragging rights.
Created by Levi Morgan of Uniontown, the tournament is designed to challenge archers in a series of targets spread out in the woods of the 1,200-acre Summit Inn property.
A native of North Carolina, Morgan has won eight World Championships, 40 National Championships, 10 Shooter of the Year awards, three Triple Crowns and holds 10 world records. He his wife Samantha are members of Matthews Archery’s professional staff and host “Name the Game” on the Sportsman Channel.
A free outdoor concert by Nate Hosie, an archer and country music performer from Montdale in Lackawanna County, is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Saturday, if weather permits.
“We expect 2,000 to 3,000 people this year,” said Mike Pollard, tournament manager.
That’s about twice as many who attended last year’s inaugural tournament, which was limited to professional archers, Pollard said.
“It’s a really nice event,” said Chad Filmeck, Summit Inn manager. “There’s food, drinks and a concert Saturday night. There’s a ton of free giveaways by vendors.”
Vendors and activities will be set up around the golf course.
“All the action will happen around the golf course,” Pollard said.
A little more than 400 archers registered for the tournament by the middle of last week. People can register through the OPA website www.proarchery.com and at the event, he said.
The top prize in the expert class is $30,000 and the $20,000 second place and $10,000 third place prizes are guaranteed. Top prizes for senior expert and women’s expert classes are $10,000 for first place, $7,500 for second and $5,000 for third.
Prizes in the men’s open class are $1,000 for first place, $500 for second and $250 for third, and prizes for the senior men’s and women’s open classes are $500, $250 and $200.
Competitors will take aim at 20 stationary targets a day on two consecutive days. The distance to the targets varies from 4 to 80 yards, Pollard said.
Some of the invited professional archers attended at Chance Beauboues, a three-time champion of the National Field Archery Association’s (NFAA) annual tournament in Las Vegas, holder of 40 national titles and the reigning OPA tournament champion; Mikey Schooser a two-time NFAA winner from the Netherlands and Stephen Hansen of Denmark.
The tournament begins Friday, but a practice range will be open to competitors Wednesday and Thursday.
Competition starts at 9 a.m. Friday and at 8 a.m. Saturday and Sunday. A complete schedule is available on the OPA website.
Mossy Oak will be the title sponsor of the event for the second year in a row. Other sponsors include BowTech, Matthews, Elite, Swhacker, Vortex Optics, Truball/Axcel, LanCaster Archery Supply, Scott Archery, Winners Choice, Custom Bow Equipment, Quality Archery Design, BCY, New Breed Archery, Browning, SurLoc, TruFire, Carbon Express, GoldTip and MNT OPS.