PORTERSVILLE — No one was expecting this.

In only its third year of fielding a competitive archery team, Portersville Christian School has produced an individual state champion, three individual national qualifiers and has advanced its middle school team to the National Archery Championships.

The national event takes place May 12 in Louisville, Ky.

“It's very exciting,” Portersville Christian head coach Erica DeLattre said. “This is the first time we've sent an entire team to nationals or had a state champion.”

Seth Van Gent, a PCS sophomore, was the overall champion at the recent state meet, hosted by Penn State University. He shot a 291 out a possible 300 at the state competition.

Van Gent beat out a field of 252 archers in the high school division, 950 archers overall. There are only 250 students in his school.

Van Gent placed sixth at the state meet last year and advanced to the nationals with Mark Haller and Marissa Slupe. Haller (middle school) and fifth-grader Leks DeLattre will be joining him as individual qualifiers for Louisville this year.

“I never thought I'd come close to winning a state title,” Van Gent said. “That 291 ... That's the highest score I've ever shot in my life.

“I just shot it at the right time, I guess.”

The top 10 state placers in each division — high school, middle school, elementary — advance to nationals as individuals. Haller placed fifth out of 182 middle school boys at the state meet while DeLattre was seventh out of 78 elementary boys.

“It was a lot harder for me to qualify (for nationals) in the middle school division,” Haller said. “Last year, I was one of the oldest kids in elementary. This year, I was one of the youngest in middle.”

Haller scored a 272 out of 300 in last year's state meet. This year, he scored a 280.

“I'm not much of an athlete,” Haller said. “I wanted to do a sport where I could succeed and I'm pretty good at this.

“It's fun traveling to all of these tournaments and representing my school.”

Haller's middle school team — roughly 20 kids — qualified for nationals through their team score of 299.9.

Haller and Van Gent expressed desire to win at nationals, but realism at the same time. There will be roughly 14,000 archers competing at the event.

“I want to try to win,” Haller said. “Mainly, I want to get a high score, have fun and do my best.”

“I hope I do well,” Van Gent said. “But I don't know if I can expect to shoot better than a 291 or even match that. I'll try to go in relaxed and see what happens.”

Van Gent did not take up archery until Portersville Christian started its team three years ago.

“I like hunting and shooting bows,” he said. “I figured I'd give it a try. It didn't take me long to get into this.”

The top 30 finishers at nationals advance to the world competition, slated for Myrtle Beach, S.C., in July. Coach DeLattre has been crunching the scores from across the country.

“The top 30 posted nationwide range from 292 to 299,” she said. “Can Seth push himself into that range? We'll see. I won't put it past him.

“Sure, nerves will play a factor at nationals. But every shooter will be a bit nervous. It's all about who handles it the best and maintains concentration and a steady hand.”

Besides the traditional archery targets, there will be a 3-D competition at nationals where archers will shoot at three-dimensional replicas of various animals.

“We don't have those to practice on here,” DeLattre said. “But I think some of our kids will have an even better chance at 3-D.”

The top shooters at nationals cam win up to $20,000 in scholarships.

“There is pressure involved when you get to this level. There's no denying that,”DeLattre said.