Archery teams doing well heading into new year

The archery teams are also having a successful season so far despite only taking part in two tournaments.

For the high school, they came in third out of six teams at the Ottumwa tournament Dec. 10, scoring 3,240 points.

The team was host to 361 archers in a tournament Dec. 17. Washington came in second place out of five teams, with a total score of 3,271. High school coach Elizabeth Goodwin is pleased at how well the season has been to this point.

?I?m very impressed with the high school kids shooting this year so far. Their scores are good and they are working very hard in practice.

?The competition is getting pretty intense and the scores keep getting higher. I think it makes the athletes want to work harder and focus in each event and at practice.?

After the break the team will focus on shooting from 15 meters. ?We really need to get comfortable with 15 meters and do better at that distance,? Goodwin said.

?I am looking forward to a busy second part of the season as well. We have a tournament every weekend in January and February.?

As for the end of the season, Goodwin is looking at March. ?I?m hopeful that we will score well enough throughout the year to compete at the State tournament. ?We will continue to work hard at practice and improve our team scores.?

For the middle school, coach Lee Applegate says the team came in first place at Ottumwa with 3,201 points and finished second at their home meet the following week with 3,219 points.

?The entire team is doing great,? he says. ?As far as surprises go, Anna Miller did that at the Ottumwa meet. She shot a 283, which was a tie for first place. It was amazing.?

As a coach the hardest part is picking a roster. ?It?s like a crap shoot trying to figure out who will be on their game that day.

?Once in a while I just have to go with their averages and hopefully they can hold that and do a little better and go with that.?

Going into this month, Applegate says their meets shouldn?t be too difficult. ?They are usually the same teams we see. Our biggest rival is Mount Vernon who has a very good roster and do well. That?s the one we try to meet or beat every time.?

Last year, several on the team made it to the State level. Will that happen again? ?I think we have a good chance of that,? Applegate says.

?We have a good chance of all three schools making it. We will just face each meet one at a time and go from there and not focus too far out.?

For the elementary team, 16 archers from Lincoln took part with the top 12 having a total score of 2,007 points at the Ottumwa meet.

At the home meet, their score improved to 2,398. ?The group continues to excel,? says coach Kathy Stender.

?We are proud of the progress the Lincoln Elementary archers have made since November and look forward to seeing their future improvements.?

The archery teams travel to Cardinal Saturday, Jan. 7, for their first meet of 2017. It begins at 8 a.m.