The 20th Annual West Virginia Division of Natural Resources National Archery in the Schools Program State Tournament was held in Charleston with three Hardy County representatives finding the perfect bullseye.
East Hardy Archery Team’s state qualifiers were: 5th grader Bayleigh Crites (elementary division) and 8th grader Brendon Shipe (middle school division).
Moorefield High School Archery state qualifier was sophomore Ronan Straight.
The Yellow Jackets narrowly missed out on sending an entire high school team by just a few points in the virtual qualification competition.
The East Hardy Archery Team was coached this season by husband-wife duo Eric and Allison Heflin.
Moorefield Archery Team was guided by head coach Leroy Shook and assistant coach CW Nesslerodt.
There were two eastern panhandle teams from our own Potomac Valley as Maysville Elementary School and Petersburg High School earned state tournament berths along with one individual from Petersburg Middle School.
Maysville Elementary School finished in third place as a team and the Vikings took home a seventh place team finish.
There was a huge scrimmage line of state archers getting their quivers full of arrows and preparing to send them flying to the targets.
Each participant had five arrows per six rounds for a total of 30 attempts at the bullseye.
The WVDNR lined up a plethora of targets inside the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center hosting the NASP state tournament for three different divisions from elementary, middle and high school ranks.
East Hardy Middle School 8th grade student Brendon Shipe had the best archery score out of the three Hardy County competitors with a score of 273 which included 14 perfect shots of 10’s.
Shipe’s scores were: 46 (2 – 10’s) 49 (4), 48 (4), 44 (1), 47 (3) and 39 (nil).
The archery golden bullseye of all tens for every arrow would be the maximum total of 300 points.
Shipe placed 17th in the middle school bracket and 8th place his own class to finish 54th in the overall boys ranking for all divisions.
Moorefield High School sophomore Ronan Straight couldn’t wait to get started after qualifying over a month earlier and shook the nerves to earn 262 points with eight perfect 10’s in his state appearance.
Straight’s six rounds of scoring included: 49 (4 – 10’s), 46 (2), 41 (nil), 43 (1), 38 (nil) and 45 (1).
Straight was 61st place in the high school boys ratings, 19th place in the sophomore class and 124th place overall for the boys division.
East Hardy Elementary School 5th grader Bayleigh Crites finished with 253 points and four perfect shots of 10.
Crites was 12th place in the 5th grade girls rankings, garnered 14th place among the elementary girls division rankings and was 143rd for the girls archery across all divisions.
Crites scoring rounds were comprised of: 45 (1 -10’s), 43 (nil), 42 (nil), 45 (3), 37 (nil) and 41 (nil).
East Hardy and Moorefield look to hone the skills aiming at the targets to bring a larger contingent next year for the WVDNR Archery in the Schools Program State Tournament in Charleston.
Crites, Shipe and Straight made Hardy County quiver with excitement and pride at the state level as their sportsmanship and positivity created lasting memories.
