By Rick Teverbaugh, Herald Bulletin Sports Editor
ANDERSON, Ind. — Two teams, representing Anderson Preparatory Academy and Anderson High School, will compete today in the fourth annual Indiana NASP State Archery Tournament.
The competition will be held in Muncie at the Horizon Convention Center. The two local schools will compete in Flight 1 beginning at 8 a.m.
There will be five flights with the final one starting at 4 p.m. If there are any tie-breaking shoot-offs, they will be held at 6:30 p.m., with the award ceremony to follow at 7 p.m.
“There are about 80 teams in this,” said Al DeGies, the coach for the Anderson Preparatory Academy team and a nationally certified archery instructor. “This tournament is full. They couldn’t get any more teams in this. I believe there will be about 1,200 kids.”
The archers could be entered as a team, which would require 16 entrants, at least five of which had to be of the opposite gender, or as individuals, which is the way APA competitors were entered.
Each of the archers will get 30 arrows in an attempt to score the most points.
“First, everyone gets five practice arrows from 10 meters,” said DeGies. “Then there will be three ends of five arrows each from 10 meters. Then there will be five practice arrows from 15 meters and then three ends of five arrows each from 15 meters.”
A bull’s-eye hit is worth 10 points with circles moving out from the bull’s-eye worth one point less moving outward. A perfect score would be 300 points.
“Each archer has a scorecard, like a bubble card,” said DeGies. “Someone will go up to the target and record the score. Anyone who gets 240 points or more has a real good chance to go to the nationals.”
Each individual archer competes in his or her grade class.
Competing from APA are:
Sixth Grade; Brian McKinzie and James Wilken. Seventh Grade: Evan Shively, Ian Evans, Nathan Carroll. Eighth Grade: Joey Blair, Marc Selg, Matthew Johnson. Ninth Grade: Caleb Riggins, Collin Gallagher, James Chastain, Joseph Shipley, Max Sechler, Megan Johnston, Miranda Newland, Tanner Madewell.
The APA team is sponsored by Girt’s Archery and Something Different Catering.
No information was available on what students will be competing from Anderson High School.
