Osgood Journal Sports

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PAGE UPDATED BY MARIA SIEVERDING MAY 30, 2017 1 P.M.

Milan Indian Archers qualify for Worlds

Milan Indians Archery Team competed on Friday, May 19 at the National competition in Louisville where 14,492 archers from around the country competed. The team qualified for NASP Worlds again this year with a score of 3,288. This was the highest score on record for Milan.

SUBMITTED PHOTO
Pictured kneeling front from left, the 2017 Milan Indian archers and the grade they are in includes: (8) Tora Coleman, (10) Margo Taylor, (10) Hannah Cassini, (7) Erica Johnson, (11) Kassey Gray, (11) Sarah Reckers, (8) Jared Rigdon, (8) Bryan Rohrig and (10) Wyatt Garner; row 2: (9) Talon Gobel, (12) Heather Hacker, (9) Allie Johnson, (8) Megan Brown, (10) Emma Miller, (11) Sabrina Allen, and (12) Evan Smith; and back row: (10) Jimmy Metcalf, (11)Nathan Ortt, (9) Justin Lillis, (10) Spencer Gammons, (11) Dan Wilson, (12)Braden Burdette, and (8)Evan Miller.

“As always, Milan had some archers shoot their best ever and some not their best but that is to be expected.” Coach Rhea Miller stated.

Milan had a team score of 3,288 and was 107 out of 248 high school teams compared to last year of 158 out of 232 (team score is determined by taking the top 12 best archers score combined). Milan archer Heather Hacker had the top score with a 290 out of 300. She is Milan’s number one shooter. Nationally, Hacker ranks among high school girls 33 out of 2,150; 12th grade high school girls: 9 out of 366; and overall all girls in all divisions 45 out of 6,762. Further analysis showed Hacker ranked 161 out of 14,492 archers that competed at Nationals. For Indiana schools only in the high school division for girls only she was 3rd in the state and for boys and girls she ranked 5th. This is an outstanding performance and her best ever I believe, Coach Miller exclaimed. The top Milan Middle School archer was Evan Miller, who shot a score of 280 out of 300. Miller was the No. 2 Milan shooter, and his national ranking out of middle school boys was 206 out of 2,991; 8th grade middle school boys only: 101 out of 1,009; and overall including all boys in all divisions: 714 out of 7,730

Coach Miller went on to say, “We had three middle school archers who ranked in our top 12 that counted towards our overall score and other Milan middle schoolers that did very well. We had a total of three new archers this season score (2 of MHS and 1 of MMS) in our top 12 this year at Nationals and another three that qualified for State/Nationals and that is great!” She continued, “We also have several other archers that have really improved this last part of the season (both at practice and at local competitions) that did not qualify for State but are shooting really well lately leaving us to legitimately expect our score to continue to improve next year. In fact, we have completely shot out the center of six of our practice targets at this point!

“While we did do very well shooting on Friday, it was just as great for us when another team’s coach from Kentucky told us that their archers told him of how nice and polite our archers were when on the range.

“We strive to make sure our team members/archers show sportsmanship at all times and this competition was no exception. We told them on the bus on our way home that we were proud of their shooting but also of their behavior on the range.”

A meeting will be held to ask the National archers and their parents to discuss the Worlds competition. It will be costly for parents/archers to attend Worlds this year as they are in Orlando, Florida in July. If there is enough interest for archers/parents to commit (must have at least 12 archers commit), then they will plan to continue practices this summer to prepare for Worlds and will work with AD John Prifogle to schedule practice time.