JACKSON, Miss. -- The first season of archery at the University of Pikeville ended in style with three individual national titles at the U.S. Intercollegiate Championships on Sunday.

After two days of qualifying and bracket play, the Bears had three opportunities for gold and they went 3 for 3.

The wins provide the first individual national championships won by Pikeville in school history. They join men's basketball in 2011 and five titles won by women's bowling as the nine total national championships tallied by the school.

Championships were claimed by Andrew Blackburn and Katie Karr in mixed basic bow, Karr, Blackburn and Zach Johnson in men's basic bow team and Blackburn again in the men's basic bow.

Blackburn, a freshman from Prestonsburg, Ky., finished the event as part of all three national championships won by the Bears, while Karr, his classmate from Corbin, Ky., ended the day with a pair of titles.

Sunday morning started off with Blackburn and Karr completing their run through the mixed basic bow bracket. The duo was seeded third and opened play with a 6-2 win over a twosome from William Carey (Miss.). In the semifinals UPIKE won against Kentucky Christian by the same score.

In the finals, the Bears forced a shoot off with UC Irvine, which they won when Blackburn shot a nine and Karr tallied a five, while the UC Irvine pair both shot fives.

UPIKE received a bye into the semifinals of the men's basic bow after earning the No. 2 seed. From there it won 6-2 over UC Irvine before taking down Navajo Tech 6-0 in the finals. To win gold, Johnson joined Blackburn and Karr as the latter was allowed to compete with the men given that UPIKE didn't have enough women's archers to form a team and the men had an open slot.

Blackburn rounded out the gold medals for the Bears by qualifying first, then winning three straight matches in men's basic bow. He beat Ralph Chance from William Carey 6-4 in the quarterfinals, Tanner Huffman of Blue Mountain 6-2 in the semis, and finally Keanu Jones of Navajo Tech by a 6-0 shutout in the finals.

UPIKE's women's bowhunter team of Lauren Burgess, Amber Mayes and Catelynn McKnight fell just short of a bronze medal after losing 194-181 to Mississippi College in the medal round. Kyle Evans and Darcye Ward had the same fate in compound mixed team, losing 139-119 to Kentucky Christian in the bronze medal round.

McKnight had a solid run women's bowhunter bracket where as the No. 12 seed she won two matches to reach the quarterfinals. First she beat Blue Mountain's Becca Gregory 128-102, followed by a shootoff win over Cumberlands' Samantha Rayburn to reach the quarters where she lost to McKenzie Gaines of Cumberlands by a narrow 133-130 score.

With all events included, UPIKE finished 3rd out of 25 as a team and had four archers named All-Americans.

Those honorees include Devin Gayheart and Johnson in men's recurve and Kyle Evans and Zach Mollett in men's compound. Archers has to finish among the top eight of their category.

-UPIKE-