White Knoll, SC 04/11/2023 - On March 29th, 2023, the White Knoll High School Timberwolf Archery Team traveled to Sumter, SC to compete in the 2023 SC National Archery in the Schools State Championship. They competed in both Bullseye and the International Bowhunting Organization (IBO) competition. Since the 2019-2020 season, there has not been another team any hotter than the Timberwolves are this year. They have won four state championships during that time frame, three in Bullseye and one in IBO. This year, they were looking to take the next step by adding a couple more titles to their resume.
As the team finished out the regular season, they were riding a 55-tournament winning streak in Bullseye competitions. They have not lost an event since early 2019 and have been shooting some of the best numbers of the season. Coming to the championship, the coaches were challenging the seven senior archers, who had over 600 tournaments to their credit, to lead the Timberwolves to victory once again. They not only had experienced senior leadership, but a solid roster of underclassman archers we were very confident. White Knoll was facing the other top 9 teams in the state who also wanted to win a title.
The tournament day started off with IBO competition. The Timberwolves scored 1699, the highest score of all season of any age group. That score was also enough to bring them their second IBO championship in a row and gave them a fifth overall title.
Senior Karson Rosendahl shot a 291 which was good enough to lead all high school archers. This also gave him his second individual state championship in a row. Senior Andrew Mixon placed 4th with a score of 283. Sophomore Hailey Rodriguez shot a 283 in the female competition which was good enough for 5th place.
Bullseye competition was next. Before time to shoot the coaches challenged the team to make some history. This was the final state event for our seniors, and they wanted to really show what they could do. As White Knoll’s archers took to the range, they took the challenge to heart and shot the highest team score for Bullseye in their 12-year history. Their final score was a 3440 score. This score was also the highest score in SC history and for this year, it ranked #2 for any state championship score and was the fourth highest score in the United States for this season. It also gave the Timberwolves their sixth state archery championship in the program’s history. Our score was highlighted with many personal bests, and they met their goal of having 12 archers score higher than 280.
In individual awards, the team took three of the top 5 awards with Karson Rosendahl shooting a 290. He missed the double individual title by one point which landed him in second place. Andrew Mixon also shot a 290 but had one less 10 and ended up in third. Tyler Wriston placed fourth with a score of 289.
For the Lady Timberwolves, they took three of five scores with Hailey Rodriguez shooting a 290 which landed her in 3rd, Rachel Lease shot a 288 which was enough to take 4th place. During Rachel’s round, she shot an impressive 21 in the 10 circles. Bree Areheart took the 5th place spot with a 288 that included19 in the 10 circles.
Overall, it was truly an incredible day for the White Knoll team, their coaches, families, and sponsors. Now they will begin preparations for the Eastern Nationals in Louisville, Kentucky. This is the biggest archery tournament in the world, and they enter the event as the 4th ranked high school team in the USA. This event takes place on May 12-13, 2023.
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