White Knoll/Red Bank, SC (Paul Kirby) - Even with all the craziness of COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, the year turned out to be a great one for the White Knoll High School and Carolina Springs Middle School Archery Teams. Like many other sports, classes, and graduations, the COVID-19 disrupted everyone’s lives and certainly school students were high on the list of those affected by it. Still, students from Lexington School District One excelled in many sports that they were participating in before the world as we knew it came to a stop!
School and statewide mandated shutdowns caused the cancellation of the 2020 South Carolina Archery in the Schools State Championships in person, but all teams were able to successfully complete the state qualifiers. These results were used to determine the winners of the state titles for this year. After leaders of the state organizations completed compiling all the scores from across the state, it was announced that White Knoll was the high school Bullseye State Champion for 2020.
With a team score of 3384 points, these student athletes were the best in South Carolina according to the sport’s state officials. Along with the team championship they also finished in 5th place in IBO (International Bow Hunting Organization) competition, missing 1st place by just 9 points. The top six teams in IBO competition were separated by just 10 points!
The White Knoll team was also fortunate to have some individual archers finish in the top 5 for the state in both Bullseye and IBO competition. For Bullseye, Jamari Dewitt placed 3rd in the state with a score of 288 for the ladies and Devynne Harling finished in a three-way tie for 5th with a 287. The tiebreaker was a ten shot shoot off and Devynne missed 5th place by just 1 shot of the ten. For the guys, Karson Rosendahl finished in a 2nd place tie with Logan Klotz and David Arnold. All three archers shot a 289. Karson and Logan had identical scores for each arrow shot with 20 - 10’s, nine - 9’s and one - 8. David finished in 3rd place with nineteen - 10’s, and eleven - 9’s. All three archers missed the individual state title by just one point as the top score for individuals was a 290.
This was the first state championship for the White Knoll Archers, and they became only the second public school to win the title in the history of the tournament! David Arnold also earned a $3000 scholarship for his efforts.
As good as that was, the Carolina Springs Huskies capped off the best season ever for a middle school archery team in South Carolina. After compiling scores, the Huskies were named Bullseye State Champions for the second time in four years by shooting a score of 3328. During this season the team became the first one in South Carolina history to shoot a score over 3300 and they did that multiple times in local competitions.
Just like the other team, the Huskies had archers finish in the top five for the individual state titles for both Bullseye and IBO. Rachel Lease finished in a tie for 1st place for the ladies with a 289 and missed the individual title by just one out of 10. Kyley Boynton finished in 4th place with a 286. For the guys, Owen Kyzer finished in 3rd place with a 288 and Tyler Wriston finished in 5th place with a 284.
In IBO competition, the Huskies brought home a 3rd place trophy with a team score of 1634 which was just 19 points off the top score. Again, the archers ended up in the top five with Kyley Boynton and Rachel Lease doubling up on awards. Kyley placed 4th with a 279 and Rachel in 5th with a 277.
This was the second state title for Carolina Springs as they won in 2017 in their first year of competition. The school and team would like to thank all of their sponsors from the 2019/2020 season for their support of the teams.
Those included:
CAROLINA BUSINESS DILIGENT TOWING & TRANSPORT, LLC. FOWLER HAULING & GRADING, LLC. SOUTH CAROLINA LIGHTFOOT MILITIA SOUTHEASTERN INSURANCE CONSULTANTS, LLC. TROPICAL SMOOTHIE CAFÉ VULCAN MATERIALS
MID CAROLINA ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE DAVID LEASE, KELLER WILLIAMS REALTY
JESSY JEFFCOAT, COLDWELL BANKER RESIDENTIAL BROKERAGE POWELL ELECTRICAL OF COLUMBIA, INC. TITLE RESOLUTIONS, LLC.
