Jefferson County archers recently took their show on the road and continued to flash their sharpshooting prowess. Most notable among the dozens of arrow-launchers was the continued dominance of Hillsboro High School sophomore Wade Conner.
After winning both the bullseye and 3-D competitions at the Missouri state tournament, Conner went to Louisville, Ky. on May 8-10 and won both events again in the Eastern National Finals of the National Archery in Schools Program.
Conner scored 299 out of 300 in the bullseye competition and 297 out of 300 in the 3-D target tournament. In total he fired 60 arrows in the two events and 56 were perfect shots, hitting the bullseye 29 times in the first contest, and scoring 10 out of 10 on the 3-D target 27 times. His score was the best among 2,554 high school boys in the bullseye event.
Hillsboro High took home the third-place trophy in the bullseye competition against 265 schools. In the 3-D target tournament, the Hawks placed fourth out of 162 schools.
Other Hillsboro student archers who finished in the top 100 for their grade level included freshmen boys James Kimbrell-Cave, 294, Colton Olson, 291, Kaleb Greiwe, 289, and Christian Alheim, 281. Junior Trenton Weber shot 290 for 25th place among 11th grade boys, and Samuel Pierce scored 289 to finish 40th out of 544 seniors. Adelynn Jaeschke also scored a 289, which was the eighth-highest score among 706 sophomore girls. Briley Vontalge, with a 288, was 17th out of 647 junior girls.
The leaderboard in the 3-D competition looked similar, with Conner, Olson, Kimbrell-Cave, Greiwe and Pierce in the top 100 out of 1,160 archers.
Natalie Yates, a junior at Festus High School, shot a 284 out of 300 for 51st place among 1,193 girls in the 3-D tournament. She posted a 288 to finish 62nd among 2,664 girls in the bullseye event.
The Seckman High School team finished 27th out of 265 schools and the top Jaguar archer was senior Abbi Hartigan, whose score of 292 was good for 10th place out of 2,664 shooters. Other Jaguars who earned top-100 rankings in their grade levels were Landon Marlett, Collin Davis, Maddie McConochie, Cassidy Jablonski and Sara Balding.
Windsor High School’s top scorer, A’nyah Hutchinson, shot 286 for 31st out of 647 junior girls. Other Owl winners were Shelby Hodges from Windsor Middle School and Rosie Hartman and Elizabeth Erb from Windsor Intermediate, who all scored among the top 100.
The Fox C-6 School District was once again well represented at the national competition. George Guffey Elementary School led the way in the elementary division, finishing in second place out of 184 schools. Lonedell Elementary and Simpson Elementary were 16th and 27th respectively. Ridgewood Middle School earned a top-10 team score at ninth place among 252 schools in the sixth through eighth grade division.
The top shooters from Guffey who finished in the Top 100 for their grade level were Andrew Moelm, Nora Burger, Charlie Bullington, Beckett Downey, Jaxon Litaker, Julia Kovack, Briella McCabe, Tathoi Das, Mani Jackson, Madeline Hazer, Jaxson Nanney and Remy Bailey.
Lonedell Elementary was led by Jack Ferrario, who shot 278 for a 24th place finish. Rilynne DeLarber and Ian Iverson also finished in the top 100 for their age groups. Simpson Elementary shooters at the top of the scoreboard were Kynslee Beutel, Ariann Giljum and Joslynn Burgess.
Ridgewood’s ninth place finish was paced by top 100-performances from Leo Pagan, Elise Watkins, Tripp Reinken, Bailey Eskew, Jaxon Throop, Logan Bloodworth, Sydney Wolfe and Jasmine Collier.
Seckman Middle School had five archers who scored in the top 100 by grade level, including Danielle Crinnon, Lena Anderson, Austin Bell, Ryleigh Peppers and Miranda Volker.
John Winkelman has been writing about outdoors news and issues in Jefferson County for more than 30 years and was the Associate Editor for Outdoor Guide Magazine. If you have story ideas for the Leader outdoor news page, e-mail ogmjohnw@aol.com, and you can find more outdoor news and updates at johnjwink.com.