Until today, I thought Rube Powell was the only NFAA competitor to win 5 National Championships. It turns out there is another.

Chula Vista resident and former member of the San Diego Field Archers - Diane Vetrecin.

FROM: National City Star-News, Volume 86, Number 100, 10 August 1969

Best in the U.S. Chula Vista nurse back with 5th national archery title

By ED STARKINS Star-News Staff Writer

Chula Vista’s keen-eyed, straight-shooting Diane Vetrecin “shot an arrow into the air” last week at an archery meet in New York and once again proved herself the best woman archer in the United States. The 33 year old Mercy Hospital nurse returned to Chula Vista Monday. She had won her fifth national woman’s championship at the National Field Archery Association competition— Grand Prix of archery. Miss Vetrecin, of 14 Del Mar Ave., Chula Vista, shot a round a day (28 shots at a target in each round) for five days at the NFAA meet held in the small New York community of Watkins Glen. Taking a three point lead on the first day, she quickly acquired a 31 point edge by midweek. She lost ground slightly on the last day of the event yet not enough to prevent her making 18 points over the nearest competitor to win her fifth trophy. The lady archer is apparently the only woman who has won a national tournament five times which may make her one of the all time woman greats of the sport. Miss Vetrecin has been coached since 1962 by champion archer Rube Powell of Chula Vista who runs an archery shop near, the Broadway shopping center. “I would never have made it at all without Rube's great coaching,” she said, “since he's one of the greatest American archers ever.” POWELL has won several national contests himself, the last in 1958, and has coached others to national success. His gifted protégé first became interested in the sport in 1960 when she was washing laundry near General Roca Park and saw some youths shooting in the city archery range. Within two years, she had met up with Powell, purchased a sophisticated modern torque stabilized bow with sights and had moved far from her original hobbyist stance to near expertise. In' 1964, Miss Vetrecin copped her first national amateur trophy and has won it every year except 1967 when she came in a very close second. SHE WANTED to become a professional but Powell and others, presumably keeping an eye on the 1972 Olympics, have told her to stay amateur for that worldwide competition of great archers. Pros are generally distinguished from amateurs by their competition for money and endorsement connection with archery equipment manufacturers. Pros often compete, however, on local levels with amateurs. The four man and four woman Olympic team will be chosen in 1971 and Miss Vetrecin has every chance of being a member of that superstar group. “I have a pretty good chance of getting on something like that right now,” she noted rather modestly, “but you can go into a slump in three years.”. She once developed an almost unnoticeable flaw in her method of releasing the bowstring, but managed to catch and correct it by watching slaw motion studies of her shooting the bow. The bow which won her the five national championships is a complicated looking device with arrow stabilizers, a distance sight and technical styling amounting to about $2OO worth of equipment. She uses her own sight system of looking through a pinhole rather than the prism system used by most high ranking amateurs. MISS VETRECIN shot from 9:30 a m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Watkins Glen tournament but took the time to be a tourist and visit the nearby Coming Glass Works and take a boat ride on Seneca Lake. She took a one day stopover to compete in the important Professional Archers Association “Maid in the Mist” contest of 200 women at Niagara Falls. The contestants aimed their shafts in a special round at movable targets spaced at 20 to 65 yards from the permanent shooting position. Miss Vetrecin’s place in the “Maid in the Mist” contest? Naturally, she came in number one.

Picture From 1964 Bow and Arrow Magazine