July 21, 2014 - Records fell as arrows flew when 2,425 student archers from 198 schools gathered to compete in the 2014 NASP® World Tournament. The contest was held at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison Wisconsin July 11-13, 2014. Student archers traveled from 28 states, 2 Canadian Provinces, and South Africa to participate in this tournament, the world’s 3rd largest this year. The 1st and 2nd largest tournaments in 2014 were the NASP® Nationals @ 10,443 students and Kentucky’s State NASP® @ 4,172 students. The 4th-­12 grade student archers earned their way into this fun by qualifying at their respective National NASP® tournaments in the United States, Canada, and South Africa.

One of the most noteworthy records to fall didn’t even involve arrow scores. With 1,140 young lady archers joining the event, female participation was 47%. This is higher even than the 45% at the NASP® Nationals in Louisville this past May. NASP® competitions emphasize co-gender team composition. Team sizes may range from 12-­24 students but there must be at least 4 archers of each gender.

Additional NASP® Archery records were also set or tied (perfect score is 300):

• 4th Grade Male: Nathaniel Harper (OH) shot a 293 to break the previous record by 5 points
• 10th Grade Female: Halee Lanigan (KY) broke the record by 3 points with a 296
• World Tournament: Clay Stevens (KY) tied this NASP® record with 298 out of 300 points
• 5th Grade Female: Heidi McGrady (OH) shot a 288 to tie the world record
• 7th Grade Male: Christian Blair (OH) tied the record with a 296
• 10th Grade Male: Paxton Lesatz (AZ) tied the record with a 296

In the team category Richmond, Kentucky’s Madison Central High School beat placed 1st ahead of Kentucky’s Trigg County High by just 7 points-3,437 to 3,430 out of a possible 3,600. Benton Elementary from Louisiana won the elementary team division preventing Kentucky from taking a clean sweep of 1st place in the Elementary, Middle, and High School Team Divisions. Teams from Georgia, Michigan, and Ohio joined Kentucky and Louisiana in winning 1st-­3rd place awards among teams.

This was the National Archery in the Schools Program’s® (NASP®) sixth consecutive World Tournament. Last year’s event was held at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis Missouri. The first four took place at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. Once again this event, like all things NASP® was highly structured and tightly choreographed to maintain our zero archery related injury record. All archers experienced a quality, super safe, on time, fun and memorable event.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) co-­hosted the excitement and provided most of the staff and volunteers necessary to make the 2014 NASP® World Tournament possible. Their enthusiasm, professionalism and superior support, providing, volunteers, equipment transportation, assisting with the range set up and much more was critical to the success of this event. We appreciate the hard work and cooperation of the Wisconsin DNR, the staff of the Alliant Energy Center, numerous NASP® State Coordinators, the Madison-­Area Sports Commission and all the volunteers that made the production and operation of this event possible.

The World Tournament is the annual culminating event for NASP®’s scholastic competitive archery season. Nearly 200,000 NASP® students vie for a place on their school’s world team. The NASP® tournament season generally begins in January with team try-outs, practice and then participation in local and regional tournaments. The teams next move through 42 state, provincial, and 3 national tournaments.

This world tournament followed the same format and protocols that 2.15 million NASP® students practiced throughout the just finished 2013-­14 school year. Each student used the same Mathews Genesis bow (Double Platinum Medal NASP® Sponsor) and Easton aluminum arrows (Gold Medal NASP® Sponsor). The bows were bare because sights, stabilizers and other aids so common in other forms of archery are disallowed in NASP®. Every archer utilizing the exact same equipment places the focus for success on the shot process required for each arrow. Every student, regardless of their grade level or experience, shot 5 practice and 15 scored arrows at an 80 centimeter Morrell target (Platinum Medal NASP® Sponsor) from both 10 and 15 meters. A perfect score is 300 (30 bulls-­eyes). Team scores are established by summing the top 12 scores among the team’s archers. Both genders must be represented in the team score. Most students find archery moderately difficult - not so hard they can’t succeed and not so easy that it lacks challenge.

The highest placing South Africa archer at the event was Rinier Visser who finished 31st overall. Canadian Mitchel Smith finished 75th among 1,140 male archers, tops for his country.

Three South African Student Archers Sharing Strategy

When the last competitive flight ended at 2:00pm on Sunday there were two ties. Skylar McFarlin of Liberty Elementary in Toccoa, GA. and Briana Mardis of Kentucky Christian Academy in Campbellsville, KY were tied for 5th place in the Elementary Female Division. Unfortunately Skylar was not present at the end of the tournament and NASP® rules state in the case of an absence the higher position will be awarded to the archer present. Briana Mardis was therefore awarded 5th place. The other tie was for 4th place in the high school boys division between 2013 NASP® All-­American, Miles Wilson of Alabama’s Alma Bryant High School and Dustin Johnson from Graves County High School in Mayfield, KY. Ties are resolved by each archer shooting 5 practice arrows and 5 arrows for score at 15 meters. Composure exhibited by these student archers was amazing as more than 2,000 relatives, friends, and competitors witnessed the tie-­breaking shoot-­offs!

That composure was needed when the shoot-­off to determine 4th place between Dustin and Miles resulted in a second tie to force a single arrow challenge. The archer whose arrow lands closest to the “X” in the center of the bulls-­eye wins the tie. Dustin’s arrow ended up right in the “X” at the center of the target and Miles’s arrow was only slightly outside of the 1 inch diameter “X” ring, securing Dustin as the 4th place finisher.

These are the teams and individuals who won first place awards at the 2014 NASP® World Tournament. All other results CLICK HERE 

Teams

• 1st Place High School: Madison Central High School, Richmond, Kentucky
• 1st Place Middle School: Caudill Middle School, Richmond, Kentucky
• 1st Place Elementary School: Benton Elementary School, Benton, Louisiana,

Madison Central High School, Richmond, Kentucky

Individual Results

• Elementary Female: Heidi Jo McGrady, Logan Hocking Elementary School, Logan, Ohio
• Elementary Male: Nathaniel Harper, Maysville Elementary School, Zanesville, Ohio
• Middle School Female: Ashley Hinkle, Henderson County South M.S., Henderson, Kentucky
• Middle School Male: Christian Blair, Fairfield Christian Academy, Lancaster, Ohio
• High School Female: Halee Lanigan, Pulaski County High School, Somerset, Kentucky
• High School Male: Clay Stevens, Trigg County Schools, Cadiz, Kentucky ‐ tied the NASP® World Record with 298 out of 300
• Over-­all Female: 296 ‐ Halee Lanigan Pulaski County High School, Somerset, Kentucky
• Over­‐all Male: 298 ­‐ Clay Stevens, Trigg County Schools, Cadiz, Kentucky

Left to Right: Mary Aldridge & Paxton Lesatz - Overall Runner ­‐ Up Female and Male and Halee Lanigan and Clay Stevens - Overall Female and Male shooters.

The location of the 2015 NASP® World Tournament is to be announced at a later date. Right now it looks like it could be held in Des Moines, IA, Madison, WI, Nashville, TN, Louisville, KY, or Orlando, FL.

Many thanks to these, NASP® Medal Level Sponsors for supporting the National Archery in the Schools Program® and this event.

• Double Platinum: Mathews, Mission & Genesis Archery
• Platinum: Morrell Targets
• Gold: Easton Sports Development Foundations
• Gold: National Wild Turkey Foundation
• Gold: Gordon Composites
• Silver: Easton Technical Products
• Silver: Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation
• Bronze: National Guard
• Bronze: Academy Sports + Outdoors
• Bronze: Archery Trade Association

Additionally, thanks to these NASP® Sponsors for their support of the 2013 NASP® World Championship: Field Logic, Rinehart Targets, Bowtree, BCY, & Electronic Awards