Nothin’ but yellow . . .

Our Beaver Area High School Archery team struck bullseyes at the recent statewide archery competition which they attended through their membership in NASP, the National Archery in Schools Program.

Beaver Area ranked 10 out of 13 teams that competed at Spooky Nook, a sports complex in Lancaster.

Senior capitan Amara Stewart shared, “We had a score of 3253, which is our PR for the year!”

Junior Abby Moldovan was the top scorer with a 285, ranking her 10th in the state. Freshman Alexis Malec shot a 283 and ranked 14th. Sophomore Manny Garcia shot a 283 as well and ranked 18th for high school boys.

Beaver Area’s archery team this year is composed of 16 high schoolers and 11 middle schoolers, meaning everyone on the team was able to compete at the state level.

According to NASP rules, sixth graders count as middle schoolers, so sixth grader Julian Farmer was able to shoot and earned himself a scholarship with his score of 282.

NASP rules state each team must have at least 12 members, and of these 12, there must be at least four male and four female.

Stewart broke down the scoring and rules, saying, “the highest [team] score you can get is a 3600. Generally, a good score is if you break 3300. If you break 3350, that’s a state's winning score. This year [our team] broke 3200 three times, including at the state competition.”

Garcia walked us through the day at states.

“The bus ride was about four hours long. We got inside [Spooky Nook] and got registered, then settled down to get some food. At around 1:30 p.m., we started to warm up and get our score cards and arrows.”

Senior captains Stewart and Anthony Tabone gave a short speech before the archers took their spot to shoot.

Tabone described the experience as, “a lot of fun because everyone is so nice, and it's a lot of fun to meet people from other schools across the state.”

When shooting at a competition, archers get an initial practice round of five arrows at the first distance, 10 meters, then shoot three scoring rounds, again each with five arrows. Then the process is repeated at 15 meters, with one practice and three scoring rounds.

Assuming a student shot perfect bullseyes each time, the highest possible score is a 300 overall (150 at each distance).

Garcia continued, sharing, “After that, we just sat around for another three hours to wait for awards and raffles to begin. There are games for fun where we can shoot apples and win targets. There’s even a coach’s shoot for fun.”