The Fab Four: Area archers going to championship round

Three youth from Orient-Macksburg and one from Nodaway Valley have reached the very top level of their sport and are traveling to Florida this weekend because of it.

From Orient-Macksburg, Eli Campbell, Myka Hanscom and Brysen Shinn have reached the championship round of archery. So has Nodaway Valley’s Aby Scovel.

They’ll shoot Saturday, June 8 in Daytona Beach, Florida in the National Archery in the Schools Program (NASP) Championship Tournament.

The quartet has qualified for the event based on how well they shot in a nationals tournament they qualified for in May in Louisville, Kentucky. There are qualifying scores that each archer was required to have in order to qualify.

This is the first time that any archer from either school has made it this far in the sport.

Scovel admitted going to state or nationals is exciting and nerve-racking enough, but to make it to championships is a whole different level.

“There’s going to be a lot of people there and it’s going to be bigger. I just need to have fun, take my time and concentrate,” Scovel said. “It’s pretty cool to be the first one [to make it this far]. It gets your hopes up for more as you get older.”

Hanscom began her postseason run as the youngest ever to win her age division at state.

“This is exciting and it’s just been a lot of fun,” Hanscom said about being one the first three from her school to make it to championships. “What makes it fun is seeing everyone succeeding. A good goal for me would be to place at championship.”

Campbell said the journey has been long for he and the other archers, who began this road last fall. It continued with state and nationals and has one last stop.

“How many months is this, like nine? It’s been a long trip but it has been fun!,” Campbell said. “Having the other three there will be nice because I won’t be the only person [from here] there and I haven’t been the only one at practice either.”

This year was Shinn’s second time making nationals, but it was his first time actually participating because the first time was during the pandemic, and it was virtual only. Now he can say he’s checked another box off his list.

Shinn said he “probably could’ve done better” at nationals, however his score was good enough to move on. He said the support for the archery program has been good as they’ve seen so much success.