National Archery in the Schools Program Tournament Winners Announced including GFMS and SCHS

RALEIGH, NC (March 2, 2021) — The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission is proud to announce the winners of the North Carolina Virtual National Archery in the Schools Program (NASP) Tournament. The tournament was held Feb. 20 – 27 and included 314 students from 14 schools across the state. Awards were given to the top three schools in each division (elementary, middle, and high school) and the top three male and top three female individuals in each division.

Teams can score a total of 3600 points. The winning teams were:

Elementary School Team, Startown Elementary, Catawba County, 2997 points.

Middle School Team, Granite Falls Middle, Caldwell County, 3086 points.

High School Team, South Caldwell High, Caldwell County, 2984 points.

Individuals can score 300 points. The winners in the male division were:

Elementary School Division, Payton Hammond, Balls Creek Elementary, 254 points.

Middle School Division, LeeJohn Yang, East Burke Middle, 273 points.

High School Division, Nicholas Swink, South Caldwell High, 277 points.

The winners in the female division were:

Elementary School Division, Megan Finney, Startown Elementary, 255 points.

Middle School Division, Natalie Bell, East Burke Middle, 288 points.

High School Division, Anna Miller, South Caldwell High, 278 points.

A full report of the tournament results can be found here.

This was a particularly difficult year for archers and tournament organizers due to COVID-19 restrictions and remote learning across the state. Students and coaches had to make extraordinary efforts to continue their archery training during the school year. The NASP tournament is usually a large weekend event with 800 participants from over 30 schools. This year’s tournament had to be held at each individual school and followed the state health department’s social distancing, masking, and gathering guidelines.

“This year we were very happy just to have a tournament given the challenges. I sincerely appreciate all the hard work by the coaches and school officials to put on a tournament at their schools,” remarked Lee Scripture, the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission archery education coordinator.  “We hope we’ll be able to host an in-person event next year. The NASP tournament provides an opportunity for students compete as a team and as individuals and show their hard work and improvement.”

The National Archery in Schools Program teaches and promotes international-style target archery as part of an in-school curriculum to improve educational performance and participation in the shooting sports among students in grades 4-12. For more information, or to find out how your school can participate, visit naspschools.org or email lee.scripture@ncwildlife.org.

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