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by Kylon Williams
The Magnet Cove High School has claimed victory in Archery in the Schools Arkansas State Tournament held at the Bank OZK Arena and Hot Springs Convention Center. (PHOTO: Arkansas Game and Fish Commission)
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HOT SPRINGS, Ark. (KATV) — The Magnet Cove High School has claimed victory in Archery in the Schools Arkansas State Tournament held at the Bank OZK Arena and Hot Springs Convention Center.
The team got a score of 3,313 out a possible 3,600 points, beating out second place Bryant High School by 68 points.
The first win in the history of the school's archery team, was largely thanks to their trio of archers Cash Hignight, Clayton Bates, and Callan Hignight, who all placed in the top five individual scores.
Bryant High School claimed second place, narrowly beating out De Queen High School with a differential of 3 points.
Charleston High School and Valley Springs High School also placed top five in the Senior Division.
Aimee Swaim, Archery in the Schools coordinator for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, gives this year's competition credit for continuing the excellence the state tournament established with their new qualifying procedures at the previous year's tournament.
“We used to have regional competitions, but if you were in a strong region you might not get to go to the state tournament while someone in a weaker division advanced with a lower score than you posted,” Swaim said. “Now, teams can shoot in as many of the qualifying tournaments as they want, but only the top 30 scores statewide get an invitation to the state tournament. All of the archers competing this weekend are truly the best in the state and deserve recognition for making it here.”
In addition to the team trophies, top individual-scoring female and male archers of the senior division were gifted scholarships ranging from $500 for fifth place to $2,500 for first place.
The male archers earning scholarships were:
The female archers' top five all finished within one point of each other, making the room for error slim to none. Three of the top five all finished with scores of 285, while the other two posted identical scores of 284, making the deciding factor be the number of bull's eyes each archer posted.
The female archers earning scholarships were:
In the Middle School Division, Washington Middle School of El Dorado took home first place with a score of 3,298, Des Arc Elementary earned second with a score of 3,229, and El Dorado's Barton Junior High, last year's champions, grabbed a third place victory with 3,216 points.
The top-individual male performers were:
The top-individual female archers were:
In the elementary division, El Dorado's Middle school captured first place with a score of 3,056, Hill Farm Elementary of Bryant placed second with 3,022 points, Salem Elementary of Bryant won a third place with a score of 2,999, Charleston Elementary won fourth, and Magnet Cove Elementary won fifth.
Porter Pozarek of Salem Elementary was the top-scoring male archer in the Elementary Division with a score of 273 and Graysen Newton was the top scoring-female archer in the Elementary Division with a score of 276.
As part of the AGFC's Archery in the Schools Program, students learn the sport of archery using modern compound bows that are available for a range of users.
Teachers and other staff are taught the sport of archery by AGFC instructors, and they bring the sport back to teach it to their students, giving children of all ages and sizes the chance to experience a new sport they can enjoy.
Click here to learn more about the Archery in the Schools and see a complete list of team and individual scores.
