Last weekend, the archers picked up their bows for their first competition of the season.

The Beaver Area team took first place February 13 at the Portersville Christian School Fifth Annual NASP Pennsylvania State Qualifying Archery Tournament. Although they haven’t had much practice this season, the team still fought—and shot—their best for this win and came out on top.

Sophomore Ryan Subroski was the tournament’s individual high scorer with 24 tens.

Although the team placed first place, individual archers wanted to improve their skills.

“I shot a 279,” said junior Mason McCarty-Cogis, “which isn’t my best, but I still placed fourth among the high school boys.”

McCarty-Cogis plans to focus on his shots from 15 meters for the upcoming competitions.

On the other hand, senior Connor Stewart placed third among the high school boys. Stewart would like to see improvement with his own skills, but as well as the team as a whole.

“The team needs to practice 15 meters,” said Stewart.

Senior Emily Bubeck also presented potential growth among the archers.

“We all could definitely improve,” stated Bubeck, “Individually I would like to practice more on my own time to improve.”

The competition did look a little different this year because of the pandemic. Masks were required (obviously) and the competition spanned two days with schools assigned specific flight times. According to the Beaver Area archers, one group of archers would shoot then the other group to keep it social distanced. Spectators were also limited, but that was to be expected.

However, “the competition this year was relatively the same,” said McCarty-Cogis.

In this time, it’s nice to have some normality. Overall, the archers shot spectacularly at the Portersville competition. Keep those arrows flying, archers!