ATHLETE SPOTLIGHT is presented by WIAWIS.
Las Vegas remains a city where dreams just might come true, and the wide open doors of The Vegas Shoot welcome those up for a challenge. You’re allowed, as an amateur archer, to challenge the top professionals, and sometimes, the amateurs get the best of it.
Gracen Fletcher, an 18-year-old from Indiana, won the championship compound female category outright by being the only woman to shoot a perfect score of 900 across the three days. She became only the ninth woman in the seven decade history of the event to achieve the mark.
“You just do the best you can to get up there and try to make the best shot you can, no matter what,” she said afterwards.
Fletcher had a familiar origin story; with a sibling starting archery.
“My brother shot a bow ever since he could walk. He started getting into competition archery in his last year of middle school, he started doing very well and my dad said, ‘Well looks like we’re gonna be going to archery tournaments from now on, so you guys might as well learn how to shoot a bow’,” she laughed.
“I first heard of the Vegas Shoot when I was, I believe I was 14 or 15, and I was like, ‘Oh, that is awesome. That’d be so cool to win that tournament.”
Fletcher would first compete at the Vegas Shoot in 2023, where she shot an 895.
“I knew I could shoot a lot better, but then when I got to Vegas, things didn’t quite line up,” she recalled.
Undeterred, she returned to the South Point in 2024, finishing 18th with an 896, not long after winning the youth open division at Lancaster. She would go on to win the young adult division at the Indoor Nationals in 2024.
“So I knew I was capable of shooting really, really well. It was just a matter of putting it all together in competition. Of course, I had a lot of encouragement from my family and other people at our club along the way.”
In 2025, after a fifth place in the pro division at Lancaster – ahead of world-class archers including Paige Pearce, Ella Gibson and Tanja Gellenthien – she visited the The Great Chicago Open. But she struggled with target panic, despite impressing with a 600.
“It was honestly kind of miserable. I was just trying to get through the weekend. But I only dropped one X. That went really well,” she said.
A change to a resistance release proved decisive.
“I heard some people say that the resistance release worked really well for them. I got one and started practicing with that. And within one session, that target panic was gone. And it took a little bit to get the feel back of my shot, but then once I did, I was on fire. So I had a lot of confidence going into Vegas,” explained the 18-year-old.
Supported by her father, who shot in the senior championship, the stage was set.
“Of course, it’s not a 300 until you put that last arrow in. But after completing that round, I was super pumped. The second day, my mental game wasn’t quite as good. But I just kept going round by round. Just keep them in the middle! I had a lot of confidence going into that third day.”
By the end of the second day, just five women were still clean on 600 points, including defending champion Gellenthien, as well as Fletcher, Alejandra Usquiano, Jennifer Winsenne and Kaylee Geist.
“I slept just fine. I was kind of surprised though, ‘cause usually I stay up all night tossing and turning if I’m in the running, but that night I slept very well.”
On the final day of shooting, when it came to the final end, just two archers would be left clean: Fletcher and the far more experienced Usquiano. But the Colombian sent her first arrow of the last end just too high.
“I did not know she had dropped the point... I didn’t know it was between me and her at that point so I got done shooting, put my bow down and then all of a sudden Paige Pearce came up to me to tell me. All the other pros were super supportive,” said Gracen.
As she was the only archer to shoot the maximum score, Fletcher won the division outright, without having to face a shootdown on the big stage – as Vegas demands all ties must be settled in the championship divisions.
“I knew there would be at least one [900]. I didn’t know that I would be the one that shot 900, but I was prepared to go into that championship shootdown mentally. But it was nice knowing that you didn’t have to shoot the next day.”
Her world suddenly exploded.
“It felt like shooting the 900 was the easy part because of all the other stuff. So of course you have interviews, you have photo shoots, you have to run around and get all the stickers, take pictures with all the manufacturers.”
Fletcher is only the ninth woman to shoot a 900 in the long history of the Vegas Shoot.
Mary Hamm (née Zorn) was the first, in 2004, then there was a 10-year gap before Sarah Lance made another 900 in 2014.
Tanja Gellenthien then shot a 900 in 2017, 2022, 2023 and 2024. She won the title in three of those years, and holds the record for the most 900s shot by a woman. In 2019, both So Chaewon and Sara Lopez shot 900 in Vegas, giving the category its first ever shootdown final, won by Lopez.
Liko Arreola then shot a 900 in 2021 and 2022, winning both years and becoming the youngest champion ever at 13 years old. Paige Pearce shot a 900 in 2020, 2022 and 2023 and was champion in 2020. Ella Gibson then shot a 900 in 2024 and was runner-up to Gellenthien.
Shooting 90 perfect arrows over three days remains – for anybody – a feat of concentration and discipline that seems ever more at odds with the modern world, especially for younger people.
So, how did Fletcher do it?
“We train horses, we’re in music, so we’re used to having very long attention spans,” she said. “I have a smartphone, but I’m only on it 10 minutes a day.”
Gracen explained that her family has a bluegrass country band in which she plays the fiddle and sings harmonies, noting that some shows could last up to two hours, which requires staying very focused throughout and memorising a lot of material.
“I’ve always had to be used to it. It’s just something we have to do. Maybe I do have the psychological makeup to pay attention longer, but I think it’s just out of necessity.”
So, the difficult question is: Will she turn professional?
“I love archery, I love shooting my bow, I love going out there and just, I love the feel of the shot, the sound of it. But I’m also very careful not to overdo it.”
“I’m afraid that, you know, if I got sponsors and if I was required to go to all these tournaments, I’m afraid that I would get very sick of archery, very, very fast. I’d get burnt out.”
Fletcher and her family train horses, which may be difficult to square with the travelling existence of a pro archer, and she is also considering college.
“We don’t know which road we’re gonna go down right now.”
“I wanna say, for now, we’re gonna stay independent, but also if a really amazing opportunity comes along, it may be kind of hard to pass up,” she concluded.
Whichever path she chooses, Gracen Fletcher has carved a new chapter in the history of the Vegas Shoot – forever.
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