Locked on Target
Gillenthien ranked among world's best collegiate archers
By Meghan Mihalko, senior writer
Posted on April 13, 2006

You won’t find one of JMU’s most decorated athletes in the weight room or on the track. You won’t find him in the pool or on any courts. The one place you may find him is on the Hillside field shooting at targets.

His name is Braden Gellenthien, and he is the sophomore captain of the JMU men’s archery team. Despite his young age, Gellenthien has been on top of the archery world for quite some time and has flown under the radar at JMU, quietly accomplishing some unique feats.

As a freshman, Gellenthien was a member of the JMU men’s compound team that won gold at the U.S. Intercollegiate National Championships as well as the mixed team that took silver. He was also a member of the gold-medal Team USA and was the top American finisher, placing 13th at the World Target Championships in Madrid.

Before coming to JMU from Hudson, Mass., Gellenthien got into archery when he was 9-years-old at Cub Scout Camp.

“I tried it for the weekend and asked my parents for a bow,” Gellenthien said. “Luckily they allowed me to get one and I’ve just gone from there.”

Gellenthien started shooting locally and was consistently finishing in the top three spots, so he decided to look at national scores.

“That’s when I realized that I wasn’t that great,” Gellenthien said.

Gellenthien hooked up with personal coach Terry Wunderle when he was 15-years-old in Massachusetts and has stuck with him ever since. Despite being at JMU, Gellenthien has a unique relationship with his coach. Instead of Wunderle being at JMU, Gellenthien films himself and his form and sends videotapes to Wunderle to critique, and then they spend time on the phone discussing what needs to be worked on.

“I train with the team and talk a lot on the phone [with Terry],” Gellenthien said. “When I came on to the team, I didn’t know what to expect.”

However, after just a year at JMU, Gellenthien seems to be meeting any expectations that anyone has set. He competes in the men’s compound, which utilizes a bow that is more high-tech than the recurve and is used more for hunting.

Despite all of JMU’s archery programs accomplishments, none of the archers are on scholarship. Many simply came to the school based off the program and the school.

“I decided when I was between seventeen and eighteen that I was either going to go to JMU or Texas A&M,” Gellenthien said. “I looked at the logistics of going to Texas and I thought that the business school was more appealing here.”

And while Gellenthien has accomplished a lot while  here, one of his most important feats happened prior to coming to JMU. In 2004, Gellenthien headed to Great Britain for the Junior World Championships. In his last tournament as a junior, he took the world championship title.

“It was great because my experience was there and I had been shooting well up until then,” Gellenthien said. “It was fitting for my career for everything to work out.”

As for the future of his archery career, Gellenthien has already been named to the U.S. Archery Team and plans on continuing to compete in the World Championships. The championships are held on odd years, and with anyone’s best bet, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that JMU’s own Gellenthien will be looking to secure another top finish in the upcoming year.