Odessa Cornick, left, and her sister Alina won national championships in archery recently. Alina won two in the Eagle (age 10-12) Division and Odessa captured a national outdoor championship in the Young Adult (15-18) Division.
By Joe Geren
Beacon Sports
When you’re already a national champion, perhaps only one goal remains.
Perfection.
That’s the goal for Odessa Cornick in the upcoming indoor archery season.
Odessa, 16, of Burlington, and her sister Alina, 12, are three-time national champions. Their most recent titles occurred in July at the Scholastic 3-D Archery (S3DA) Eastern Outdoor National on the University of the Cumberlands campus in Williamsburg, Ky.
Odessa won the female young adult (age 15-18) championship, and Alina captured the female Eagle division for ages 10-12.
In June, Alina won an indoor national title in Rend Lake, Ill.
“They shoot their first couple rounds, and that’s how they get into the shoot-off,” their dad, Zach Cornick, explained. After the shoot-off, “there’s a bracket-type system where they shoot against each other. It’s two full days.”
In young adult competitions, “the top three finishers get academic scholarships,” Zach said. “There are probably 15 scholarships around the country. They’re adding up.”
Last March, Odessa won the national title in the Eastern Indoor S3DA in Owensboro, Ky., and won several scholarships, including some to the University of the Cumberlands, Kentucky Christian, Southeast Illinois, and Lindenwood. With the win in Williamsburg, some of the scholarships were duplicated.
Odessa, who soon begins her junior year at Burlington High School, has not decided which scholarship she’ll use. “I haven’t started looking too much yet,” she said.
Zach and his wife Denissa founded the Flint River Archery Club in late 2020.
Last Sunday, the Cornick sisters were among four Flint River Archery Club members who won state titles in the Iowa State ASA championship in Iowa City. Odessa won the young adult female pins division, and Alina captured the Eagle girls’ pins. Isaiah Mendenhall won the Eagle boys open division and Brody Foley won young adult male pins.
Other club members competing in the state meet were Timothy Burns Jr. (2nd, Eagle boys open), Addison Ewinger (2nd, Eagle girls open), Raelle Miller (2nd, Eagle girls pins), and Abigail Foley (3rd, Eagle girls pins).
Miller also finished 10th in the Eastern Outdoor National in Kentucky last month. According to a Flint River Archery Club Facebook post, Miller’s sights were going low left the first day of the competition. Coaches fixed the problem, and Miller shot a personal best the second day.
“In a couple weeks, the ASA Outdoor National is in South Dakota,”
Zach Cornick said. “We’ll be going to that.”
Both Cornick girls have played other sports, but archery is their preference.
“I did golf for a little bit, but mostly archery is what I do,” Odessa said. She played on the BHS girls’ golf team. “I started (archery) when I was four years old.”
“I played volleyball and soccer, but not right now,” Alina said. In archery, “I like outdoor targets better. It’s cells (in 3D animal-shaped targets). Basically, it’s upper and lower cells.”
Odessa has goals.
“I want to win some more things, obviously,” she said, “get some more scholarships collected. Indoor season is next, so right now, my goal is to shoot an absolutely perfect score, a 150 with 30 Xs.”