Mount Ayr Record-News
Mount Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa
Thursday, June 2, 2011

  The Diagonal Maroons archery teams competed in the National Archery in the Schools Program (NASP) National Archery Championships held at the Kentucky Expo Center in Louisville, KY, recently, placing 43rd in the elementary school competition and 54th in the high school team competition. There were 4,037 male archers and 2,694 female archers ranging from third grade to 12th grade for a total of 6,731 archers participating.

In the team divisions there were 78 elementary teams, 104 middle school teams and 111 high school teams. In all there were 35 states represented with 100 male archers and 90 female archers coming from Iowa.

Schools from Iowa represented were Diagonal with an elementary and a high school team, Central City with an elementary and a middle school team, Cardinal of Eldon with a middle school and a high school team, Alburnett and Anamosa each with a high school team, Bellevue with individual archers and Spencer with individual archers.

The Iowa team's scores and final rankings are: Elementary division (winning team - Woodlawn Elementary from Georgia with a score of 3,244; 43. Diagonal, 3,004 (new team high); 63. Central City, 2,874.

Middle school division (winning team - Ashville middle school from Alabama with a score of 3,403); 9. Central City, 3,283; 50. Cardinal, 3,144.

High school division (winning team – Henderson County high school with a score of 3,430); 13. Cardinal, 3,330; 28. Alburnett, 3,284; 54. Diagonal, 3,176 (new team high); 90. Anamosa, 3,066.

A team score is comprised of the top 12 scores with at least four having to be from opposite gender (can't be all boys or all girls).

The Maroon elementary team was able to use their top 12 without having to drop any scores to bring up others. The high school team had to drop three male scores to bring up three female scores for a loss of only six points.

Scores for the elementary team in their 3,004 total included: Cassidy BECKER, 276; Allison NORRIS, 270; Russell HOLMES, 264; Kole PAXSON, 262; Cassidy LOHMANN, 261; Jaci HAIDSIAK, 248; Ty TAYLOR, 245; Stormie BUCHANAN,238; Maddie LOHMANN, 236; Ethan NEWTON, 235; Cole MOBLEY, 235; Kayla BENTLEY, 234.

High school team scores in their 3,176 total included: Heath EVANS, 287; Layne RUBY, 286; Brett ENGLAND, 278; Dillon DAVENPORT, 273; Shad HAIDSIAK, 265; Brittany PARROTT, 263; Aaron DAVENPORT, 263; Blake BUTLER, 261; Leigh DAVIS, 256; Kaitlin KLOMMHAUS, 253; Jenna BERGER, 247; Shai WEASELHEAD, 244.

Male scores dropped in reaching the 3,176 total included Colter PICKERING, 255; Ken WEASELHEAD,248, and Tyler BECKER, 274.

Individually archers are separated by gender and ranked by grade, division (elementary, middle school and high school) and overall.

For the females there were 2,694 archers total, 999 elementary archers, 816 middle school archers and 879 high school archers. (All third graders are ranked by grade as fourth grade. The program was originally set up for fourth to 12th grades and hasn't been updated in their computer program yet.)

For the girls, Cassidy BECKER ranked 19th in sixth grade, 28th in the elementary shooters and 203 among all shooters to lead the Diagonal squad.

Making the top 100 was a very proud day to be wearing the maroon and white colors from Diagonal.

Although when the scores were added the teams came home with no awards, the teams had many individuals shoot their personal best scores, both teams topped their high scores and many individual sranked high in the nation.

The team will miss its seniors but the sixth grade members moving into the high school team will balance out the number of girls on the team and many of the young archers are improving with every practice, the coaches noted.

Seniors leaving the team will be greatly missed for their leadership, they noted.

Funding for this program comes from fund-raisers and donations. Without help the program would not be able to maintain equipment and compete at the national level. The overwhelming support has been greatly appreciated.

Photograph courtesy of Mount Ayr Record-News

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, June of 2011