On February 7, the PHS Archery Teams traveled to North Harrison for their final competition before the NASP State Qualifier.

This year’s team consists of 17 elementary students, 14 middle school students, and 18 high school students. The team is coached by Elementary Teacher Amanda Bowles.

“My team is very strong this year. They have shown more growth this year than in previous years. I think we have a real shot of advancing to State this year. I have several kiddos who I believe will qualify as individuals,” said Bowles.

At an archery competition, each archer is given eight rounds of five arrows, with six rounds scored. When scoring, the shooter’s witness bubbles in the score on the corresponding line. Arrows closest to the center are the highest-scoring, with points ranging from ten (center gold circle) to one (outer white circle).

Senior Tyler Ross, first-year archer, shot a 280 out of 300.

“I feel great about it, I enjoy the program a lot, and wish I knew about it sooner,” said Ross.

Fifth grader Jace Lindley, a second-year archer, shot a perfect 50. A perfect 50 is when an archer shoots five bull’s-eyes in a five-arrow shooting round.

On Saturday, February 14, the team competed in a State Qualifier hosted at North Harrison. Each team was awarded a collective score, combining all the archers in each division. The high school group earned a score of 2942, the middle school team scored a total of 2488, and the elementary group tallied up a score of 2025.

At the State Qualifier on Saturday, Ross again scored a perfect 50 during one of his rounds.

The team now awaits the overall results to see which students will qualify for the State contest. Those who have earned a qualifying score will be notified and asked to attend the State contest.

The State contest will be hosted on March 26 at the Indiana State Fairgrounds.