Published October 01, 2019 in NewsBy P.J. Reilly

2020 Lancaster Archery Classic Registration is Now Open

2020 Lancaster Archery Classic Registration is Now Open
The time to register for the 2020 Lancaster Archery Classic is now!Registration is open for the East Coast’s largest indoor archery tournament, scheduled for Jan. 23-26, 2020, at the Spooky Nook Sports Complex in Manheim, Pa.The Classic has been on a steady growth path each year, and this year is no exception. Yes, it promises to be even bigger than last year’s record-setting tournament, which drew over 1,700 archers.This year’s Classic has a ton of new features, so let’s dive right in and take a look at the enhancements.For starters, archers will compete for over $300,000 in cash and prizes, including over $160,000 in cash payouts, contingencies and over $20,000 in door prizes. The top prize will be a $20,000 payout to the Open Pro division champion.The prize money includes a hefty increase in total payouts for the Recurve divisions. The $51,450 that will be awarded to Recurve archers could be the world’s largest recurve payout for an indoor archery tournament.The bump in total Recurve payouts is largely due to the creation of the Women’s Barebow Recurve division. Archers have been asking for this division for a couple of years, and now, thanks to overwhelming support from the barebow community, it’s here.The Women’s Barebow Recurve division will pay $2,000 for first place, $1,000 for second, $500 for third and $250 for fourth. Just like in the Men's Barebow division, the top three finishers in the Women’s Barebow competition also will receive custom Lancaster Archery Classic Barebow trophies – an additional award for the Classic’s most-watched competitors.The 2019 Lancaster Archery Classic Barebow Finals video on YouTube was viewed over 163,000 times between late January and the end of September. That’s over three times more views than any other division finals.Winners in the Men's Recurve and Men's Barebow divisions will take home $8,000 each, which is up from $6,000 last year. The Women’s Recurve champ will win $4,000 – up from $3,000.Other increased payouts for 2020 are as follows:Men's Recurve and Men's Barebow: second place - $4,000; third place - $2,000; fourth place - $800; fifth through eighth place - $400; ninth through 16th place - $250.Women’s Recurve: second place - $2,000; third place - $1,000; fourth place - $500; fifth through eighth place - $250.All other payouts from the 2019 Classic will remain the same for 2020.New for the 2020 Classic, there will be “Missed-Cut Payout Flights.” Here’s how those will work. All of these awards will be paid in Lancaster Archery Supply gift cards, and they will be paid based on scores and rankings at the end of the qualification rounds. Archers scoring below the cutoffs for their respective divisions, which would have enabled them to advance to the elimination rounds, will be put into flights for these Missed-Cut awards. The top three archers in each flight will receive gift cards.The flighted payouts will be as follows:Open Pro: for places 65-67 - $350.Women’s Pro and Masters Pro: for places 17-19 - $250.Men’s Open: for places 65-67 - $150; 96-98 - $100; for places 128-130, 160-162 and 192-194 - $75.Men's Barebow: for places 65-67 - $150; for places 96-98 - $100; for places 128-130 and 160-162 - $75.For Masters Open, Women’s Open, Youth Open, Bowhunter and Men's Recurve: for places 33-35 - $150; for places 65-67 - $75.For the six other divisions with cuts to 16th place: places 17-19 - $150.Speaking of the cuts to 16, the 2020 Classic marks the first time no division will cut to less than 16. While there had been some divisions in the past that only sent eight archers to elimination rounds, for the 2020 tournament, division cuts will be 16, 32 or 64 archers.The past two Lancaster Archery Classics have included a special tournament-within-the-tournament, so to speak, for youth archers. It was a special, one-day competition for kids under 21. That afforded the opportunity to experience a world-class tournament, but for a fraction of the cost and a fraction of the time commitment.For 2020, that competition is being expanded to include collegiate archers. The Easton Youth and Collegiate Trophy Tournament will feature the following divisions: Bowman, for ages 12 and under; Cub, for ages 13 and 14; Cadet, for ages 15-17; Junior, for ages 18-20; and Collegiate, for college students with the proper eligibility.The Easton Youth and Collegiate Trophy Tournament will consist of a 60-arrow round shot from the standard 18 meters at 40cm target faces. There will be no elimination rounds, with trophies going to each division’s first-place finisher, and medals being awarded to the top three archers in each division. Each age class will feature separate competition divisions for Open, Recurve and Barebow archers in both male and female classes.The tournament will begin at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 25. Archers who compete in this competition can also shoot in the Classic, if they want. To accommodate the new Collegiate division, space for the Trophy Tournament has been expanded to allow for 540 competitors.And speaking of tournament expansions, to accommodate the Classic’s growing competition base, a new qualification line is being added for the 2020 event. In addition to the three Friday lines, which begin at 8 a.m., noon and 4 p.m., archers also can choose to shoot in a 4 p.m. line on Thursday, Jan. 23.Adding that extra line now allows the Classic to accommodate 1,930 archers in 2020, plus 540 for the Easton Youth and Collegiate Trophy Tournament. With extra archers expected to compete, of course, the practice facility has ben expanded as well. While there were 90 practice lanes available on site this year, there will 136 lanes available in 2020.Aside from these new features added to the 2020 Classic, archers can still count on one of the best competition formats for indoor archery. This is not a tournament that requires perfection. All you have to do is shoot well enough in the 60-arrow qualifying round to make the cut to advance to eliminations. In that part of the competition, you’ll shoot a 12-arrow, head-to-head match against another qualifier. Win, and you advance.If you can win enough matches to make it past the finals cut-off for your division, you can shoot your way to victory. Let’s say you finish the qualification round and elimination matches ranked eighth in your division. And let’s say that division takes the top eight archers for the finals shoot ups.As the No. 8 archer, you would start the finals by shooting a head-to-head match against the No. 7 archer. The winner of that match takes on the No. 6 archer. This process continues until someone shoots a match against the No. 1 archer for the division championship title, lots of cash and a well-deserved place in LAS Classic history. So in a division that advances 64 archers to elimination matches, it is entirely possible for the archer that shot the 64th best qualification score to win his or her division.As always, archers can count on the usual, world-renowned, top-shelf Classic experience at the 2020 event. You’ll be treated like royalty from the moment you walk through the front doors of Spooky Nook. The entire LAS crew on site is there to serve you.We’ve got an on-site practice facility, which will be available for an additional fee of $15, if purchased before the event, or $20 on site. (There is free practice on Saturday for archers competing in the Easton Youth and Collegiate Trophy Tournament.) Or, you can practice for free at the LAS Pro Shop, which is 15 minutes away from Spooky Nook. A shuttle will ferry people from Spooky Nook to the Pro Shop regularly during the tournament.When you’re shooting your qualification round, you’ll be shoulder to shoulder with the best archers in the world. Archers and archery fans can meet a selection of the top pros and Olympians for photos and autographs during a “meet and greet” event scheduled for Saturday. Our sponsoring equipment manufacturers will have over 40 booths set up to show you the latest and greatest target archery gear.Sign up now by clicking here. We hope to see you at Spooky Nook in January!