Bullseye: Local teams collect wins at county championship archery tournament

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The West Point High School archery team took first place in this week’s NASP (National Archery in the Schools Program) Cullman County Championship Archery Tournament. / Courtesy of Heith Yearwood

CULLMAN COUNTY – This week's NASP Cullman County Championship Archery Tournament took place at Fairview High School, where West Point High School, Vinemont Middle School and East Elementary collected more hardware. West Point toppled Good Hope by nearly 100 points with 3,344, Vinemont edged out Cullman by 14 with 3,303 points and East Elementary (team 1) bested Vinemont by more than 200 points with 3,216.

Top five finishers in male and female age division

Girls Elementary School Division

  1. Fifth-Grader Briana Willoughby, East Elementary. Scored 11 tens and 274 total points
  2. Fifth-Grader Brinley Hurt, East Elementary. Scored 8 tens and 267 total points
  3. Fifth-Grader Arianna Scott, East Elementary. Scored 10 tens and 262 total points
  4. Fifth-Grader Lillyann Powell, East Elementary. Scored 4 tens and 258 total points
  5. Fifth-Grader Allie Stewart, East Elementary. Scored 5 tens and 257 total points

Boys Elementary School Division

  1. Fifth-Grader Hayden Scott, East Elementary. Scored 16 tens and 278 total points
  2. Fifth-Grader Evan Dockery, East Elementary. Scored 13 tens and 274 total points
  3. Fifth-Grader Cole Burnham, East Elementary. Scored 12 tens and 273 total points
  4. Fifth-Grader Cooper Loftin, East Elementary. Scored 11 tens and 272 total points
  5. Fifth-Grader Jack Yeager, East Elementary. Scored 8 tens and 266 total points

Girls Middle School Division

  1. Eighth-Grader Samantha Johnson, Cullman Middle School. Scored 18 tens and 286 total points
  2. Eighth-Grader Jamie Jowers, Cullman Middle School. Scored 13 tens and 282 total points
  3. Eighth-Grader Peyton Hacker, Vinemont Middle School. Scored 17 tens and 277 total points
  4. Eighth-Grader Kilie Cosper, Cullman Middle School. Scored 12 tens and 277 total points
  5. Seventh-Grader Berkley Gable, Vinemont Middle School. Scored 14 tens and 276 total points

Boys Middle School Division

  1. Eighth-Grader Irvin Rojas, Vinemont Middle School. Scored 15 tens and 283 total points
  2. Eighth-Grader Carter Duke, West Point Middle School. Scored 17 tens and 282 total points
  3. Sixth-Grader Carson Starnes, Cullman Middle School. Scored 14 tens and 282 total points
  4. Eighth-Grader Jarrett Friedrich, Vinemont Middle School. Scored 14 tens and 280 total points
  5. Seventh-Grader Logan Ford, Vinemont Middle School. Scored 13 tens and 279 total points

Girls High School Division

  1. Sophomore Ronnie Gentry, West Point High School. Scored 23 tens and 290 total points
  2. Sophomore Lily Owen, West Point High School. Scored 17 tens and 282 total points
  3. Freshman Shay Sellers, West Point High School. Scored 13 tens and 278 total points
  4. Sophomore Sarah Hudson, West Point High School. Scored 14 tens and 275 total points
  5. Freshman Mallory Hammock, Good Hope High School. Scored 13 tens and 274 total points

Boys High School Division

  1. Freshman Matthew Dunagan, West Point High School. Scored 22 tens and 290 total points
  2. Junior Elijah Edge, Fairview High School. Scored 21 tens and 290 total points
  3. Junior Ethan Little, West Point High School. Scored 19 tens and 288 total points
  4. Senior Will Dickerson, Good Hope High School. Scored 15 tens and 283 total points
  5. Junior Christian Parker, West Point High School. Scored 16 tens and 280 total points

East Elementary Principal David Wiggins is proud of his school’s success in the tournament, but he’s not surprised.

“I am not surprised with the success of our archery team,” Wiggins said. “These students, their parents and our coaches have dedicated themselves to being their personal best, both in school and with archery.”

Branch Whitlock is the coach for East Elementary and Cullman Middle School. Whitlock was excited to see his squads perform well and thinks they are continuing to improve as the year goes on.

“Both teams shot really well, I think we’re competing at a high level right now. We’re coming into our own,” Whitlock said. “You can look back at last year’s scores at the same time and see that a lot of the state is ahead of where they were last year, and both of our teams are the same, we’re ahead of where we were last year. Based on our regional results, both of us qualified as the number one team in each of our divisions.”

Whitlock is already looking ahead to the competition his teams will face later this year in state competition.

“Buckhorn is the defending champion, they have really nice facilities and I think everybody is pretty much chasing them, although we did shoot a higher score than them throughout all the regionals. East Elementary has kind of been on top the last three years, but this year we’ve been chasing a team out of south Alabama named Dixon Elementary, and about a month ago they were about 150 points better than us, and I think we finally caught them and shot a higher regional score than they did,” Whitlock said. “We’ll kind of see how it goes, there’s basically three teams that (it) looks like can win it in middle school; that’s Cullman, Vinemont and Buckhorn, and then in elementary it’s pretty much a two-team race with East and Dixon for the state tournament.”

West Point High School Principal Heith Yearwood was also excited to see his students bring home a regional title and is happy to see their hard work pay off.

“We are very proud of our archery team. The students and volunteer coaches spend countless hours practicing for such occasions,” Yearwood said. “We are blessed to have Tommy and Shauna (Junkins) that share their passion for archery with our students. Our parents do a wonderful job of supporting the teams with fundraising and helping out as needed. We look forward to seeing what the rest of the year has in store.”

Several local schools claimed wins during last week’s NASP Cullman County Regional Archery Tournament at Cullman High School. The West Point Warriors collected first place in the high school division with 3,365 total points, Cullman Middle School finished first in its division with 3,312 points, edging out Vinemont Middle School by just 12 points, and East Elementary racked up 3,199 points on its way to first place in the elementary division.

Top five finishers in each male and female age division

Female High School Division

  1. Sophomore Ronnie Gentry, West Point High School. Scored 22 tens and 292 total points
  2. Freshman Shay Sellers, West Point High School. Scored 15 tens and 282 total points
  3. Sophomore Lily Owen, West Point High School. Scored 15 tens and 281 total points
  4. Freshman Mallory Hammock, Good Hope High School. Scored 13 tens and 279 total points
  5. Freshman Jenna Chaney, Priceville High School. Scored 11 tens and 272 total points

Male High School Division

  1. Freshman Matthew Dunagan, West Point High School. Scored 24 tens and 293 total points
  2. Junior Ethan Little, West Point High School. Scored 21 tens and 291 total points
  3. Junior Christian Parker, West Point High School. Scored 21 tens and 290 total points
  4. Senior Will Dickerson, Good Hope High School. Scored 16 tens and 284 total points
  5. Senior Bennett Fullenwider, West Point High School. Scored 15 tens and 284 total points

Female Middle School Division

  1. Eighth-Grader Jamie Jowers, Cullman Middle School. Scored 15 tens and 281 total points
  2. Eighth-Grader Gabby Conde, Vinemont Middle School. Scored 13 tens and 279 total points
  3. Seventh-Grader Berkley Gable, Vinemont Middle School. Scored 12 tens and 279 total points
  4. Seventh-Grader Savannah Mann, Vinemont Middle School. Scored 12 tens and 278 total points
  5. Eighth-Grader Samantha Johnson, Cullman Middle School. Scored 12 tens and 275 total points

Male Middle School Division

  1. Sixth-Grader Carson Starnes, Cullman Middle School. Scored 21 tens and 291 total points
  2. Sixth-Grader Vance Powell, Vinemont Middle School. Scored 18 tens and 284 total points
  3. Seventh Grader Carter Duke, West Point Middle School. Scored 13 tens and 282 total points
  4. Seventh-Grader Jackson Henshaw, Cullman Middle School. Scored 15 tens and 281 total points
  5. Sixth-Grader Will Bolzle, Cullman Middle School. Scored 13 tens and 279 total points

Female Elementary School Division

  1. Fifth-Grader Allie Stewart, East Elementary. Scored 16 tens and 280 total points 
  2. Fifth-Grader Arianna Scott, East Elementary. Scored 11 tens and 267 total points
  3. Fifth-Grader Ava Flores, East Elementary. Scored 6 tens and 266 total points
  4. Fifth-Grader Lillyann Powell, East Elementary. Scored 8 tens and 261 total points
  5. Fifth-Grader Briana Willoughby, East Elementary. Scored 7 tens and 258 total points

Male Elementary School Division

  1. Fifth-Grader Jonathan Roland, Vinemont Elementary. Scored 9 tens and 275 total points
  2. Fifth-Grader Cole Carden, East Elementary. Scored 12 tens and 274 total points
  3. Fifth-Grader Hayden Scott, East Elementary. Scored 11 tens and 272 total points
  4. Fifth-Grader Cole Burnham, East Elementary. Scored 10 tens and 268 total points
  5. Fifth-Grader Kayden Henderson, Vinemont Elementary. Scored 10 tens and 268 total points

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