Another “A Shot in the Park” tournament is in the books. Or should I say another incredible “A Shot in the Park” tournament is in the books. If you have never attended an archery tournament, you’re missing out on seeing some amazing student athletes compete in a great event.
This is one of the largest in the area with over 600 kids competing in 6 different flights. The event outgrew its original venue of Wheeling Park High School and has now been moved to the indoor field at the Highlands Sports Complex. With all of the restaurants, stores, and hotels, I can’t think of a better place in the Valley to hold such a tournament.
As I was talking to one of the directors, Rick Thomas, before the event began, he wants to grow the event even more. He talked about some other West Virginia high schools that will participate next year, and how he would like to get the Ohio schools involved as well. Possibly this event could be home to more than 1,000 kids. Now to the action.
I just love the sound of the thud, thud, thud as the arrows pierce the targets. Spectators with their binoculars checking to see what zone their archers struck. The archers are paired up and check each other’s scores after each round. The archers start with a practice round at 10 meters, then have 3 rounds of scoring. After this they move to 15 meters, start with a practice round, then 3 rounds of scoring. A perfect score is a 300, keep this in mind as we go over some of the winning scores from the day. In most sports, a mistake or misstep can be overcome.
Archery is such a precise sport that even the smallest error can cost you an important point or two. The focus and work that the kids put in to compete at the highest level is impressive to say the least. Something else you will notice at an archery tournament is the willingness of all of the coaches to help all of the kids not just the ones they are coaching.
The high score for the day was a 296 scored by Clay Tenney (26 10’s) of Upshur County Homeschool Archery Association and Elijah Bryant (25 10’s) Buckhannon Upshur High School. Abilene Supers was the top girl’s scorer with a 291, she is from the Upshur County Homeschool Archery Association.
Our top Ohio Valley scorer was Kinsley Moncmon from Parkersburg South High School with a score of 280, she finished 7th overall in the girl’s division.
The highest scoring boy from the Valley was Wyatt Tomlinson of Parkersburg South High School scoring a 279, which allowed him to place 7th in the division.
Clay Howard of John Marshall High School also finished with a 279, finishing one place behind at 8th.
Genieva Huyssen (Cameron) was the highest scoring middle school girl from the Valley with a 254, finishing 25th in the division.
Our highest finisher for the boy’s middle school division was Jude Veltri with a 265 from Linsly, finishing 9th in the division. For the elementary division Kaylee Crockard from St. Vincent’s finished 4th in the division with a 253. And on the boy’s side Triton Brown of West Liberty Elementary shot a 254 good for a 5th place finish in the division.
I can wait for some other local tournaments at Cameron and at the John Marshall Fieldhouse.
Some of these local athletes travel over 3 hours for tournaments. It’s nice that they have some local events to participate in and see some really good competition.
I cannot say enough how much Ohio Valley Athletics is at being a part of the growing archery community.
If you’re looking for something to do on a weekend and want to see some great competition, check out an archery tournament close to you.
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