Trybulski 1st in the U.S., 2 nd in World Bowhunting Championships

Congratulations Sandy Trybulski! Trybulski, an associate in the UNH Cooperative Extension Nutrition Connections program in Sullivan County, won the 2004 national Triple Crown Championship in her class and came in second in the International Bowhunting Organization  World Championships, held August 12-14, in Snowshoe, West Virginia.

IBO national and international competition involves walking a course scattered with 40 3-D targets, rigid foam replicas of deer, bear, turkeys, wild boars, and other game animals. Competitors score points according to whether and where their arrows hit the targets. The top five contestants in each class shoot another 10 targets to determine the ultimate winner in the World Championships.

Trybulski’s high-tech compound bow differs radically from the traditional crescent-shaped “recurve” bow many people encountered in gym class or summer camp. It features machine- made limbs replete with cams, wheels, cables and strings, and requires dozens of sensitive adjustments.

Trybulski began shooting as a teenager. “Bill [the high school sweetheart she later married] and I went woodchuck hunting on our first dates,” she says. “Bill taught me to shoot. He bought me my first rifle, explaining all the safety aspects in great detail. He insisted I become as familiar with its working parts as I was with a washing machine. I got my first bow sometime in the early 1970’s, but only used it for hunting until Bill and I took up 3-D competition  in 1996.”

The Trybulskis’ passion for shooting sports has long supplied all the meat for their family table—hunting with rifle and bow, Sandy Trybulski has managed to shoot a deer almost every year for more than 30 years. The first New Hampshire woman to shoot a wild turkey with a shotgun when the season was reinstated in the state in the 1980s, she’s also bagged a turkey with her bow, as well as wild boar at a game preserve.

High-level competitive bowhunting demands daily physical training year-round that keeps Trybulski fit and trim. “I walk, hike, snowshoe or cross-county ski at least an hour a day, often both before and after work,” she says. ”I use stretchy bands for strength training. I shoot somewhere between 5 and 24 arrows every day. In the winter, I shoot at a bag target in the basement, with the woodstove going, or from the warm garage out into the snow.”

Trybulski also "practices judging yardage," pacing and measuring distances under varying conditions of terrain, vegetative cover, and weather. The sport requires contestants to estimate their distance from the 3-D targets quickly and accurately, without help from rangefinders or other technical instruments.

Trybulski cherishes training, competing and hunting for “the self-discipline it provides, and for that strong bond of common interest” that keeps her marriage strong.

She puts her knowledge of good nutrition to work, in both her private and professional domains: “I tell my clients I always eat a good breakfast, eat from the Food Guide Pyramid lots of fruits and vegetables and whole grains and limit the fats, oils and sweets.  It helps me win. It really works!”