James Weber, jweber@communitypress.com
1:29 p.m. EDT March 29, 2014
UNION – Playing for an official Kentucky High School Athletic Association title has caused the archers at Ryle High School to step up their game.
Sharing the same status as more established sports such as basketball and football has helped the sport at the school, which has had a club team for about a decade.
“The quality of the kids is much higher than years past,” said head coach Brenda Klaas, who originated the program at Ryle. “They were more focused and they had a goal in mind. Being sanctioned, they got more serious, it was not just about having fun and hanging out. They wanted to shoot well. They were pointing things out to each other in practice and helping each other.”
In the recent KHSAA state meet, Ryle finished 15th in the team competition at the tournament, scoring 3,304 points. A perfect score is 3,600, based on 360 arrows. The format is 30 arrows scored from 12 different students, the top four scores from each gender plus the next four. The champion, Trigg County, scored 3,457.
Out of Ryle’s 360 scoring arrows, 146 or 41 percent, were perfect 10’s, and another 151 were 9’s.
“The kids did really well,” Klaas said. “We set team records for totals twice this year. Our regional score was a record and we turned around and did even better at state”
Junior Sam Loehrke led Ryle in 16th place in the boys division, scoring 288 out of a perfect 300. Junior Jacob Grimes was 96th (279) and junior Micky King 104th (279). Additional scoring was junior Ben Benton (276), junior Tyler Zahn (275), freshman Spencer Sanders (273), senior Andrew Clark (273) and junior Steven Gripshover (270). Additionally for Ryle was junior Jack Kirby (267), freshman AJ Bailey (264), freshman Mason Gooch (238), junior Dylan Rooks (235), sophomore Conner Hoffman (229), freshman Noah Riddle (178) and freshman Brady Mugavin (130).
Junior Elizabeth Shouse finished 11th out of 278 girls with a score of 288. Like Loehrke, she hit 19 perfect 10’s out of 30 shots. Junior Allison McCarthy finished 99th with a 270.
Sophomore Caitlyn Klaas scored 268 and sophomore Elizabeth Pulsifer 265 to round out the team scoring. Also scoring were sophomore Abigail Smith 264, sophomore Lindsee Borland 253, freshman Delaney Kamp 245, senior Daonna Owens 236 and junior Kaitlyn Niehaus 210.
Up next is a potential berth in the National Archery in the Schools Program national tournament, which will be May 8-10 in Louisville. Ryle’s score was high enough to get a berth in the tourney, though spots are limited in the tournament and entry into the field works much like getting tickets to a major rock concert. Klaas will have to log onto a web site April 15 to try to get the Raiders into the field with other coaches from around the country endeavoring to do the same thing.
“They wanted to quality for the national tournament and I told them they had to shoot 3,300 and they just got above that,” Klaas said. “We’re planning to move on to the next level.”
Until then, the Raiders will continue to practice twice a week.
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