INDIANAPOLIS

Just being there was a big accomplishment this year.

After the 2020 Indiana National Archery in the Schools Program State Tournament was canceled 48 hours beforehand due to the COVID-19 pandemic, only 25 teams qualified for the high school division in Saturday’s 15th annual event at the Indiana State Fairgrounds in Indianapolis.

Seymour High School qualified for the six straight year in 2020. Then the state, national and world tournaments were canceled.

This year, Seymour kept its state streak alive and fortunately got to have 20 archers compete.

Once all of the results were in, the Owls placed fifth with 3,335, only 14 points away from Castle’s winning score of 3,349.

Head coach Jill Purkhiser said that was the tightest group of scores she has ever witnessed at a state tournament.

“These archers poured their hearts and talent into this tournament,” she said. “We are the Davids taking on Goliaths of this sport. All the other teams around us in the top 10 have archery in their lower grades (elementary and middle schools). Most of their archers have shot at least six years or more. Our Archery Owls at most have four years. To say I’m proud of these kids is an absolute understatement.”

After the team finished shooting in the morning, they gathered outside near the bus, where assistant coach Jonathan Purkhiser proudly shared his thoughts.

“I hope you had fun. I hope you enjoyed it,” he told the archers. “Sometimes, you shoot up. Sometimes, you don’t. But you all have been there the whole time, you’ve worked at it, you’ve worked really hard to get here. Super, super proud of you guys. I think the world of you. Great job! Awesome!”

Getting to compete in person was the main thing this year, Jill said.

“They canceled it 48 hours before they shot last year. That just took my seniors down,” she said. “Thankfully, I had some of them here rooting on the team today, so that was really neat to have them back. I really wish they could have been shooting, too, but thankful we got the 20 in that got to shoot today. We had four great alternates that came with us. They helped out as managers. They are as much a part of the team as anybody.”

At that point, she hadn’t looked at the team scores, knowing they would keep coming in throughout the day. No matter what the score wound up being, she was proud.

“I’m just super excited, super proud of them,” Jill said. “Some of it is I tell them, ‘Hey, you survived it.’ They get so wound up with it that they forget to have fun, and I want them to have fun, I want them to enjoy it, I want them to appreciate what they just did. We were one of 25 high schools in the whole state, so super, super excited to be one of 25.”

Madelynn Burns, one of 14 Seymour senior archers who competed Saturday, led the Owls with 287 — 13 points from a perfect score. Overall, she placed first among 70 senior girls and second among 253 high school girls.

To top it off, she and senior teammates Kaylee Tudor and Hannah Busby won $500 scholarships from Indiana NASP. Jill said they were among only 50 seniors earning the scholarship this year.

“I’ve been really worried about that, too, so it was nice. It was really nice,” Tudor said.

This was Tudor’s third time qualifying for state but only second time getting to compete since last year’s tournament was called off.

“It was a lot different,” she said of this year compared to two years ago. “I knew there wouldn’t be concessions and the fun stuff to look at, which was fine, but I liked the setup. I liked that there were so many targets. I knew what was going to happen. It’s nice knowing what you’re going to go into. My first year, I went in and I was like, ‘Oh, this is so different than anywhere I’ve ever shot.'”

On Saturday, she was one of three Owls shooting 279. The others were seniors Ethan McKinney and Johnathan Engleking.

“I could have done better,” Tudor said, smiling. “But it was fun, and I did really good in the beginning. I shot two 50s in a row, and so I was getting pretty confident in myself. Normally, if I’m excited about it, I’m less nervous and I don’t focus on that.”

Busby said being at state her first two years of high school helped this time around.

“I wasn’t as nervous as in the past, but it was a little different shooting just by myself,” she said of archers having their own target instead of two competitors in one lane.

“I could have done better, but I didn’t do the worst,” Busby said of shooting 275.

Classmate Evan Kegeris also didn’t favor shooting in the middle of the lane, and he had nervous excitement going into Saturday.

“It was pretty nerve-racking. I’ve been shaking all day from it, but I was excited,” he said, smiling.

He, too, thought he could have done better, but he had a solid showing of 272.

“It’s great being here,” Kegeris said. “I just hate it’s my last time.”

That sunk in for the seniors afterwards.

“I loved it — every second of it — until I cried. After that, I was good,” Tudor said. “I cried because I didn’t do as good as I was hoping and I was like, ‘This is my last chance.'”

They turned into good tears when she looked back on the accomplishment of the Owls qualifying for state.

“This is like my favorite thing to do. I love archery. I hate waking up in the morning, but I do it for this,” Tudor said, smiling. “Archery is such an underrated thing. Nobody knows about it, nobody cares about it, but the people who do care, they care so much. I was thinking about that when I was in there, I was like, ‘All of these people who come together to do this, they care so much about archery.’ I love that.”

Busby was happy to share the moment with her teammates.

“I love this team. They are all so nice,” she said. “I was very excited (to qualify). I was kind of nervous we weren’t going to make it since they cut it back, and then we did.”

While state is in the past, the Owls still have a lot to look forward to this season.

They have tournaments March 27 at Scottsburg, April 10 at Milan and April 17 at North Decatur. Then May 1, they will be at home for Senior Night, and both Team 1 and Team 2 — all 40 archers — will compete in the virtual national competition.

Soon, coaches, archers and parents also will start talking about whether or not they are going to the open — formerly world — competition in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

As the season marches on, Jill said she wants the archers to enjoy themselves and bring home some more hardware.

“Last year, we went undefeated. That’s what killed us with COVID. It was like, ‘Man, of all years,'” she said. “This year, we’ve done very well, and actually, we’re undefeated, but we’ve only been in three tournaments. We’re to the point now that we’re competitive. Any tournament we go to, it’s not a given that we’re going to come in third like it has been in the past. We have the ability to win some.”

[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”At a glance” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]

This marked the 15th annual state tournament held by the Indiana National Archery in the Schools Program since its inception in January 2005.

Elementary, middle and high schools across the state that have NASP as a part of their curriculum were eligible to compete in qualifiers from Jan. 1 to Feb. 7. Nearly 1,500 students qualified and were invited to compete.

Indiana NASP is provided for schools across the state through the Department of Natural Resources Division of Law Enforcement. The program started in the state in 2002 with 10 pilot schools and now has more than 600 schools trained to deliver the program to Indiana students. More than 70,000 Indiana students have benefited.

[sc:pullout-text-end][sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”At a glance” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]

Seymour High School placed fifth out of 25 teams in the high school division in Saturday’s Indiana National Archery in the Schools Program State Tournament at the Indiana State Fairgrounds in Indianapolis.

The team shot 3,335.

Individual scores were Madelynn Burns 287, McKenzie Wirtz 281, Hannah Ackeret 280, Logan Bryant 280, Kaylee Tudor 279, Ethan McKinney 279, Johnathan Engleking 279, Kielar Greer 277, Eli Wood 277, Hannah Busby 275, Evan Kegeris 272, Leigha Butler 269, Charlotte Rust 268, Jaden Bevers 260, Kiersten Engleking 254, Jacob Jones 254, Pablo Trejo 252, Seth Lane 243, Dorismar Ortiz 243 and Levi Croquart 238.

For other information about the tournament, visit nasptournaments.org/TournamentDetail.aspx?tid=6253.

[sc:pullout-text-end]