The Milford archery team, which includes members from Crete, placed first in the high school division at the Nebraska Archery in the Schools Program Western Regional Tournament in North Platte Feb. 25, winning its first-ever team championship in the high school division.
Along with the team trophy, many individual placers and All-Academic team members were recognized.
“Our Milford team won the day, even with a few of our top shooters having a difficult day and a few unable to make the tournament,” Coach Jim Wissenburg said. “It was a great chance for some of our other archers to step up.”
A team consists of up to 24 shooters, with the top 12 scores counting for the team score. At least four of those 12 scores must be male or female archers.
“Because Milford does not have enough middle school shooters for a team, we have our middle kids shoot up as part of our high school team,” Wissenburg said.
Archers can move up a division but not down. The middle school archers still shoot individually as middle school archers.
“A good portion of our winning team score was made up of middle school kids. That says a lot about our young shooters since most schools don't operate in this way and most of the high school teams we shoot against are made up solely of high school students,” Wissenburg said.
Jay Wissenburg led the team with a 276 out of 300, and Natalie Nutzman and Ayla Salistean both shot 275.
Milford also boasted six of the 24 academic archers recognized for their efforts in the classroom and their high scores at the regional shoot. They were Jay Wissenburg, Natalie Nutzman, Sydney Havlat, Zephyr Mowinkel, Allie Gerdes and Ayla Salistean.
The top five shooters in each division were recognized with plaques for their efforts on the day. Milford had six archers recognized with top five awards.
“It gives me great confidence heading into state in a few weeks that we can make some noise at state this year,” Coach Wissenburg said. “I sure want to thank the efforts of all my volunteer assistant coaches for helping to get this team ready for the final stretch of our season. The kids wouldn't be where they are without their help.”
In addition to the Feb. 25 regionals, part of the team made the long trip south to the Border Wars tournament in Overland Park, Kansas, Feb. 18-19.
Ayla Salistean and Avery Langenfeld both shot well, with Salistean placing 13th of out of 126 middle school girls.
Closer to home, Natalie Nutzman had her best showing so far this season at the Blessed Sacrament Catholic School tournament in Lincoln Feb. 18. She placed fourth in the high school girls division and sixth overall.
Chris Wissenburg worked his way up to a tie for sixth place in the middle school boys division, and Allie Gerdes finished fourth in the middle school girls division.
Next up, Milford will host a shoot this weekend, March 3-4, which Coach Wissenburg said appears to be setting up as the second biggest Nebraska Archery in the Schools Program archery shoot in the state behind the Nebraska state shoot in Lincoln March 17-18.
