Pearl Lorentzen
Lakeside Leader

Three area schools sent archers to provincials March 16 to 18 in Edmonton.

Smith School and St. Mary of the Lake Catholic School (Slave Lake) both had archers place in the top 10 for their grade. One Smith student was in the top ten for elementary (Grade 4 and 5).

Smith
Smith Eagle Jacob Malone (Grade 5) ranked fifth for Grade 5 boys. He was also seventh for elementary boys (Grade 4 and 5).

Smith School is a K to 9 school. It sent 13 archers to provincials, from Grade 5 to 9.

Jacob was the only one in the top 20. The rest were ranked between 32 and 103 for their grade.

St. Mary’s
Huskies had two in the top 10 and two in the top 20 for their grades.

Sara Chacon placed eighth for Grade 4 girls.

James Arca (Grade 6) was ninth.

In Grade 6, Samantha Marpuri was 18th for girls in her grade and Jordon Brown was 20th for boys.

Provincials broad categories are elementary (Grades 4 to 5), middle school (Grades 6 to 8), and high school (Grade 9 to 12).

However, unlike Jacob from Smith, the St. Mary’s archers didn’t place as well in the broader categories. For example, Sara, who was eighth for Grade 4 girls, was 32nd for elementary girls.

This seems to indicate that higher grades in a category do better and that there may have been fewer elementary school boys than elementary girls and middle school archers.

This was St. Mary’s first season. It is K to Grade 6 school, which sent 14 Grade 4 to 6 archers.

Coach Evan Mellsen was pleased with their performance.

He says, “Every archer tied or improved their all-time best score in a very competitive environment.”

Kinuso
Kinuso School sent 13 archers to provincials. These were from elementary, junior and senior high.

“Our top shooters were MacKenzie Raymond and Jean-Luc Raymond (high school), Hudson Nadon and Peyton Grayson (junior high) and Hayden Sloan (elementary),” says principal Susan LeBlanc-Ward.

Of the Knights, only Mackenzie (Grade 11) was in the top 20 for her grade. She was 14th for her grade.

Jean-Luc was ranked 29th for Grade 10 boys.

Payton and Hudson are both in Grade 8. Peyton was 27th for Grade 8 girls. Hudson was 40th for Grade 8 boys.

Hayden, from Grade 6, ranked 65th out of Grade 6 girls.

Not all Kinuso School archers attend that school.

Nikosis Isadore, from St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Academy in Slave Lake, competed as part of the Kinuso team. He ranked 51st out of Grade 10 boys.

“We did not have enough players to send to the games,” says St. Francis principal, Melton Moyo. “We had to join Kinuso.”