Steve Stratton is assistant principal of Adairville Elementary School and an enthusiastic supporter of competitive archery.
The local archery teams will be in action close to home this month as Lewisburg hosts their annual tournament on Feb. 6, Chandlers on Feb. 13, and Adairville’s Cardinal Classic on Feb. 19 and 20. Adairville will feature a 10-meter only shoot on Friday the 19th for the students not ready to shoot at 10 and 15 meters.
The NASP Archery program is experiencing another phenomenal year of growth as schools throughout the state add programs. Russellville’s elementary program has spread into the middle and high school giving the Panthers three teams this year. Adairville has added a middle school team this year along with Lewisburg and Chandlers with elementary and middle school teams. Logan County High School’s team will be in action at these tournaments also along with teams from Henderson, Trigg County, Munfordville, Hart County, Clarksville Northwest, and individuals from Georgia, Indiana and Nashville.
If you have never been to an archery tournament, stop by any one of these local tournaments and you will see some of the best archers in the nation. Trigg and Henderson return teams that were state and national tournament winners last year. Adairville finished second in the first World Tournament in Orlando, Florida last fall and returns an elementary team, which has the potential to win the State Tournament in Louisville in early March.
Dusty Yates, who shoots for LCHS, recently won top shooter award at Trigg County with a 290 score, and teammate Duston Crafton won top shooter at Henderson County after shooting a 291; he still had to win a shootoff against Henderson County’s Ethan Flynn. Also at Henderson, Lewisburg Middle School’s Jacob Brumfield, who came in fourth in Middle School males with a 277; Marah Harris of Lewisburg Middle School was first in her division with a 286 score, and Rachel Palgren of Lewisburg finished ninth with a 265 score.
In the Elementary individual scores Lewisburg’s Blake Taylor was top male shooter with a 285, in third place was Lewisburg's Zac Mcelfresh with a 269 score, Adairville’s Austin Rayno finished fourth with a 269, (Mcelfresh had 11 tens and Campbell's 9 to break the tie); Alex Hughes of Adairville was fifth with 266, Jordan Campbell of Adairville finished sixth with a 264, and Seth Schweers of Lewisburg was tenth with a score of 257.
In the girls Elementary division Lewisburg’s Caitlyn Foster was third with a 271 score, Adairville’s Katie Robertson was sixth with a 268, Grace McLellan of Adairville was seventh with a 263, Lewisburg’s Caitlin Hardison eighth with a 257, Amanda Crutchfield of Adairville ninth with a 252 and Lewisburg’s Audrey Wells rounded out the top ten with a 250 score. This gave Lewisburg and Adairville 12 of the top 20 scores in the Elementary division. Even with this strong showing by Lewisburg and Adairville, Trigg County took top team awards with a score of 3,037. Lewisburg came in second with a 2,975 score and Adairville took third place with a 2,935 score.