A local archer has been crowned the 2016 Middle School Boys National Archery Champion for the National Archery in the Schools Program (NASP).
M.C. Knoll鈥檚 Brad Heskin 鈥� competing with the YRHS Raider archery team 鈥� shot a score of 283 out of a possible 300 while at the NASP National tournament in Edmonton to take first overall in the Middle School Boys category.
The 283 score was also good enough to place Heskin third place in Overall Boys out of 804 archers. 鈥淚 was pretty shocked, but I was really happy,鈥� stated Heskin 鈥� who is in grade eight at M.C. Knoll School 鈥� adding that initially he was upset because he thought he had finished third in his category. 鈥淚 knew I had shot pretty well, but they told me I got third and I took that as third in my category and not third out of all the boys so I was a little disappointed, but then I realized that I won and I was pretty shocked and happy.鈥�
For Heskin, the 2016 National championship is the second National medal for him after a second place finish at the 2014 NASP National tournament in Regina, where he shot a 269.
Heskin said that he wasn鈥檛 expecting to even attend this year鈥檚 National competition in Edmonton due to M.C. Knoll not sending a team, but when YRHS coach Mike Jarvis asked if he鈥檇 like to attend he quickly said accepted. 鈥淢r. Jarvis asked if I wanted to go with them to Edmonton and so I said yes,鈥� mentioned Heskin 鈥搘ho is also a standout defensive lineman for the Yorkton Minor Football Peewee Gridders. 鈥淚 was very lucky because they thought that I was competitive enough seeing what I had done before, so they decided to take me with their team and I was honoured.鈥�
Other Archery results
In addition to Heskin, the YRHS took 14 other archers to Edmonton for the Nationals, while Yorkdale Central School also sent a team made up of eight archers.
YRHS archers to compete were: Thomas Djagowez (274, 13th in high school boys), Brayden Jarvis (271, 19th in high school boys), Payton Weinmaster (265, 29th in high school boys), Cailin Jarvis (264, 29th in high school girls), Sydney Tangadal (258, 43rd in high school girls), Ocean Williams (256, 48th in high school girls), Peyton Corkum (249, 57th in high school girls), Jed Stachura (245, 86th in high school boys), Dustin Murray (245, 88th in high school boys), Jaron Weinmaster (240, 71st in middle school boys), Jake Fenske (230, 115th in high school boys), Garion Miller (230, 116th in high school boys), Jordan Percival (216, 140th in high school boys). The Regional also had another female shooter score 252, however her name was not posted on the results list. Team wise, the YRHS Raider team finished in fifth overall with a 12 archer total score of 3102 鈥� the highest score of all Saskatchewan schools in attendance.
For Yorkdale, grade eight girl Abby Lees shot a school high 278 out of 300 to finish with a bronze medal, third overall out of 301 middle school girls.
Zach Wasylyshen (266, 15th in middle school boys), Burke Sebastian (263, 17th in middle school boys), Payton Popowich (261, 20th in middle school boys), Emma Parkvold (246, 37th in middle school girls), Keanen Gnyp (243, 56th in middle school boys), Mason Ferris (236, 83rd in middle school boys), Jonathan Hedley (230, 105th in middle school boys).
