Portersville Christian in world event
PORTERSVILLE — The Portersville Christian School archery season doesn't want to end.
In just its third year of having a program, the PCS middle school team is headed to the National Archery in the Schools Program (NASP) World Tournament in Myrtle Beach, S.C., June 24-26.
The team shot a 3,107 — including 101 perfect rounds of 10 — to move on from nationals last month in Louisville.
“Our score was good enough to qualify,” PCS coach Erica DeLattre said. “I can't believe we're still in here (the gym) practicing, that we're still going.
“This is the first year we even qualified a team for nationals.”
PCS will be taking 15 archers to the World Tournament — including 12 in the 3-D target division. The program has enjoyed unprecedented individual success this year as well.
Seth Van Gent, a sophomore, was overall champion at the state meet. Mark Haller, a sixth-grader, shot a 292 at the national meet to place first among the top 800 sixth-graders in the nation.
Haller placed 10th overall among more than 2,600 middle school archers at nationals. His previous career-best score was 286.
“I couldn't believe what I was seeing,” said Ronee Haller, Mark's mother and a PCS archery assistant coach. “He started off hitting every target from 10 meters away.
“They move back to 15 meters for the latter rounds and I figured that might throw him off. But he started off with a perfect 50 again.”
Archers shoot five arrows per round. A bulls-eye is worth 10 points.
“I started off with two straight 50s,” Mark said. “I just got comfortable and more and more confident. I was focused in.
“The adrenaline was going at the start of the meet. I was shooting (at a) faster (pace) than I normally do. But it wasn't affecting my score.”
Haller had 22 10's out of 30 arrows. He scored a 9 on his other eight shots.
“His level of concentration was excellent,” DeLattre said.
Another PCS sixth-grader, Brandi Johnston, shot a 277 to place 228th out of 2,326 at nationals. She only shot a 238 at the state meet.
“That (277) came out of nowhere. Brandi was amazing,” DeLattre said.This is Johnston's first year on the team.“It looked like fun and I wanted to try it,” Johnston said.The atmosphere of the national meet — hundreds of archers standing in a row shooting as opposed to 40 or 50 at a regular meet — didn't bother her at all.“If I was looking at who was around me, I wouldn't be able to concentrate on the target,” Johnston said matter-of-factly. “It was all still about lining up your shot and staying accurate.”Johnston has never even owned her own bow until recently. She has been using the school's equipment during practice and at the competitions.“The bow itself isn't all that different, but the big thing was she could never practice at home before,” DeLattre said. “Now she can — and does.”The PCS middle school team has 21 members, though only 15 will be able to make the trip to the world event. Other team members posting scores above 250 were Julia Schaming (269), Matthys du Toit (262), Josiah Van Gent (257), Cambrie Kuzar (256), Leks DeLattre (253), Noelle Ledford (253) and Jacob Walker (252).Among other countries registered for the NASP World Tournament are Mongolia, Canada, South Africa and the United Kingdom.“We had no idea the team would perform as well as it did,” DeLattre said of the national meet. “I kept watching other scores being posted and saw we were right in there.“Nerves never got to these kids, not at all.”Don't expect the World Tournament to be any different.“I'm excited. We're lucky it's in Myrtle Beach,” Mark Haller said. “I'm definitely going in the ocean ... I'm going to have fun and do the best I can.”PCS has no 3-D archery targets of its own to practice with. Acorn Archery, out of New Castle, provided the program with some targets that way.“That proved very helpful in practice, getting our kids ready for the 3-D part of nationals,” Ronee Haller said.
