Abby Hora

Abby Hora

Literature/Writing + Music

Sixth College

Senior Nickname: sAltY mEme MaeSTra

USA Archery Level 2 Instructor
2017-2019 Treasurer
2016-2019 UCSD Archery Competitive Team Member

Accolades
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

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!

Michael Philips

Michael Phillips

Linguistics

Sixth College

Senior Nickname: Micycle

USA Archery Level 2 Instructor
2017-2019 UCSD Archery Competitive Team Member

Accolades
2018 SoCal Indoor Archery Collegiate Championship Male Recurve Bronze

Michael found his way to the Sun God Archery through UCSD Recreation’s archery classes. He and his roommate were looking for something new to try, and had signed up for a beginner class in fall of their second year. From there, they continued fostering their interest in archery by joining the club, and eventually the competitive team.

Michael’s favorite competition was the 2019 NOCC in Ohio. This was due in part to a pre-existing desire to visit the state, but also because the tournament was his first time attending an outdoor competition. Being able to shoot with his friends and meet people from around the country made the event an altogether interesting, fun, and enjoyable experience for him.

However, Michael was also highly involved in the club outside the team itself--namely, teaching the JOAD classes. For him, teaching archery to kids of different ages and skill levels proved challenging, yet exciting due to the dynamic it created among the students. Acting as the personal coach for some of his more ambitious students, Michael recalls attending the 2019 JOAD Indoor Nationals as his fondest memory from his time in the club. It was the first time he’d attended a competition to support a student, and during the midday break between lines he and his student were able to eat and play board games together for a while.

Michael’s time as the JOAD instructor, both during the classes and while supporting students at competition, allowed him to better appreciate the work it takes to coach both new and continuing archers. At competitions, it allowed him to see tournaments from a different perspective and emphasized the importance of mindset and mental game in that setting. His biggest takeaway from working with young archers is that ultimately, archery is meant to be enjoyable for the process itself. It can be easy to get caught up in winning and focusing on success in score, but seeing the JOAD archers focus on having a good time reminded him why he enjoyed archery in the first place.

When he graduates, Michael will be going through a teacher credential program, then pursuing a Master’s in education. He hopes to eventually teach elementary school students. Congratulations Michael, and we wish you luck in your teaching career!

Dan Nguyen

Dan Nguyen

Biochemistry + Biology

Roosevelt College

Senior Nickname: Armed Waifu

2015-2019 UCSD Archery Competitive Team Member

Accolades
2018 SIACC Mixed Team Barebow – Bronze
2019 SIACC Mixed Team Barebow – Silver
2019 NOCC Individual Barebow – Bronze
2019 All-American Male Barebow

Fate has brought the bow into Dan’s hands, both before college and into Sun God Archery. His archery journey began when his sister’s co-worker invited them to go out to Miles Square Park to shoot at the public archery range back when he was in 8th grade. After this, he kept coming back, until his parents finally decided he should get his own bow. Later on in college, it was instead a friend from his 1st year dorm who invited Dan to join her at one of SGA’s beginning of the year GBMs. There, he saw the presentation that he would then see again for the next three years. After going to his first workshop, he was hooked, and came back to be a star archer in SGA’s competitive team.

Dan’s competitive career in archery has been fraught with many highs and lows, clearly reflected in his most memorable, then separately his most favorite memories at the competitive scene. Dan remembers fondly NOCC of 2016, being able to relax and have fun, a stark difference to when he’s on the line shooting. He also loves to think back on eating Lolita’s with the team and cheering on for his teammates (after getting quickly eliminated himself). This is a stark contrast to his most memorable memory, in which at NOCC 2019, Dan was about to win his semifinals match. All he had to do was score at least a white ring on the target. So, he promptly shot a 9 – on the next bail over. Effectively throwing his silver away, but instead walking away with a fantastic story.

In SGA, however, it wasn’t the stress of the competition that was his mortal enemy, or even his inner conflict with being a weeb, but rather performing consistently at the line, the foundational, yet most difficult task of archery. While he believes there’s always room for improvement, he recognizes he has come a long way since he walked on that field during the workshop so many years ago.

After Dan graduates, he’s looking to get into the highest paying job to get out of debt as soon as possible, and maybe even one day coming back to it to go to graduate school. We will miss Dan greatly, and truly hope him the best in his next chapter of life!

Elizabeth Wu

Elizabeth Wu

Human DevelopmentAl Sciences

Marshall College

Senior Nickname: The Wholesome Peace-Seeker

USA Archery Level 2 NTS Instructor
2016-2017 Vice President
2017-2019 President
2015-2019 UCSD Archery Competitive Team Member

Accolades
2019 SGA Apollonian Award
2018 Western Regional Female Recurve Team Silver
2017 Western Regional Female Recurve Team Champion

Elizabeth’s first experience with archery was at the young age of 10, when she took a 1-day class with her sisters. However, she never thought she would come back to it until her freshman year at UCSD when she found Sun God Archery on library walk. After attending a beginner's workshop, she was drawn to the welcoming community and uniqueness of the sport. From there, she began her journey into the world of archery.

As a senior now four years later, Elizabeth's favorite part of being in the club is still the community. With all the practice hours she attended, she became close friends with her teammates and the club quickly became part of her social life.

Another aspect of being on the team that Elizabeth appreciated was the opportunity to compete at the collegiate level despite no past experience in archery. During her journey in competitive archery, Elizabeth struggled with not seeing immediate results. She failed to qualify for the team during outdoor season of her first year, but rather than give up, she was only more determined to improve for her second year. Her patience and perseverance paid off in the following Western Regionals in Davis, CA when she shot and won gold with the women's recurve team.

For Elizabeth, archery has always been a learning process, whether that meant her participation on the team or as a club officer. During her three years on the board, she learned to appreciate improvement as an ongoing process, move past mistakes, and seek to better herself. These experiences and skills that she gained contributed a lot to her personal growth both inside and outside of the club.

Thinking back, one defining moment of archery for Elizabeth was at 2017 State Indoors in Tulare, CA. The team was waiting in line for the venue in the cold morning air and to stay warm, everyone started bobbing up and down. This quickly developed into a pattern, with every other person bouncing in sync with each other. Other memorable experiences included a bumpy and unsettling bus ride, card games, and fun food adventures.

Once she graduates, Elizabeth will be attending law school at Santa Clara University. We thank her for her years on the team and the board, congratulate her on graduating, and wish her the best of luck in all her future endeavors!

Brian Frastaci

Brian Frastaci

History + Classical Studies

Marshall College

Senior Nickname: Speediest Bookworm

USA Archery Level 2 Instructor
2015-2019 UCSD Archery Competitive Team Member

Accolades
2019 All-American Academic

When Brian first drew back a bow in the ninth grade, he enjoyed the feeling of shooting and wanted to see if it would be worthwhile as a hobby. When he found Sun God Archery, he was reminded of his high school experience and decided to continue shooting in college, and thus his adventure with Sun God Archery began.

What really drew Brian to SGA is how comprehensive it feels. With SGA being social, recreational, and competitive, Brian could he shoot and compete while making new friends. Of all of the tournaments he has competed at, Brian’s favorite is National Outdoor Collegiate Championship (NOCC) because he got the opportunity to travel to an exotic place like Ohio and compete there.

In his time with SGA, Brian has had many memorable experiences. His weirdest experience was accidentally walking into an arrow at NOCC and having to reassure his balemates--while he was bleeding--that he wasn’t diseased. Out of all his memories though, his favorite was shooting at Indoor Nationals and being the best collegiate barebow at the venue. Above all, he recalls this sport challenging him to grow.

After graduation, Brian will be applying to graduate programs for history or religious studies, and he also plans to do freelance copy-editing on the side. We wish him luck in all of his future endeavors! Congratulations on graduating!