Howell archery teams, led by the team from Parker Middle School, are headed to the national championship this weekend.

105 Howell Public Schools students, representing the district’s archery teams, will head to Louisville, Kentucky this weekend to compete in the National Archery in the Schools Program (NASP) Eastern National Tournament. The schools represented include Howell High School, Highlander Way Middle School, Parker Middle School, and Three Fires Elementary. Officials say each of the teams qualified to compete at the NASP Eastern National Tournament based on their performance at competitions this season.

During the season the Parker Middle School team earned five first-place trophies, four second-place trophies, and were named the 2019 Michigan 3-D Middle School State Champions and the Michigan NASP Middle School Bullseye Competition Reserve Champions. The Parker Middle School team had seven of the top 10 middle school 3-D archers (Luke Lowery 1st, Brooke Rienas 2nd, Grant Fyke 5th, Hannah Whitefoot 6th, Lucas Blankenship 6th, Jacob Dault 7th, Makenna Atkins 9th) and three of the top 10 middle school Bullseye archers (Luke Lowery 2nd, Lucas Blankenship 6th, Grant Fyke 9th).

The Howell High School team earned three first-place trophies and four second-place trophies and were named the Michigan Reserve Champions in both High School 3-D and Bullseye. The team had five of the top 10 high school 3-D archers (Connor Blankenship 2nd, Marissa DiBello 4th, Tommy Whitefoot 4th, Sylas Jantovsky-Wendel 5th, Christina Tartaglia 7th) and one top 10 high school Bullseye archer (Christina Tartaglia 10th).

In its first season, the Three Fires Elementary School team earned two second-place trophies and four third-place trophies. The team also took third place for elementary schools in both 3-D and Bullseye. The team had one top 10 elementary school Bullseye archer (Kameryn Gross 4th) and one top 10 elementary school 3-D archer (Kameryn Gross 10th)

Over the course of the season, the Highlander Way Middle School team earned two third-place trophies and had one top 10 3-D middle school archer (Brian Tormanen 8th) and one top 10 middle school Bullseye archer (Meredith Heeg 7th).

The students will compete in both the Bullseye Competition, which involves traditional bullseye target, and the 3-D Challenge that involves animal decoys. Over the course of the season, the teams attended 11 tournaments and earned a combined total of 31 trophies and 67 medals. The NASP Eastern National Tournament is one of two national tournaments hosted by the organization. The top teams from the national tournaments will advance to the NASP World Championship, which will be held in Nashville, Tennessee in July. (JM)