Jefferson Middle School has an amazing archery program, and that was on display last weekend. Not only did the team place 9th out of 92 teams at the World Championships, team member Beth Merrifield beat out 882 other middle school competitors to be the best in world.
Here’s the full press release:
Jefferson Middle School Archer is No. 1 in the World
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Beth Merrifield became the no. 1 middle school archer in the world at the National Archery in Schools Program® World Championship in Louisville, Kentucky, June 7-9.
Merrifield, who recently completed eighth grade at Jefferson, competed against 884 middle schoolers from the U.S. and multiple countries, scoring a 293 to claim the top spot. She ranked 8 out of 2,362 for the tournament overall, which included elementary, middle and high school divisions. Teammate Mathias Kirkland scored 290 to rank 10th among middle schoolers and third in the seventh grade boys division. The highest individual score possible was 300 points.
The Jefferson Archery team placed ninth out of 92 teams. They advanced to the World Championship after winning their sixth consecutive state title with a record-setting score in April. Before that, they placed sixth out of 255 at the national tournament in May, where shooter Kendall Lyell scored 291 to place in the top 1 percent.
“We are so proud of our entire Jefferson team this season,” head coach Jason Brown said. “It is exciting to see our student archers excel with such skill and passion, especially as a relatively new sport in Champaign schools.”
Archery teams were established at Jefferson, Central and Centennial within the last seven years as a non-IESA sanctioned sport and have grown in size and popularity since then. This has been a banner year for Unit 4 archers, with Central becoming first-time state champions and Centennial High School placing second in the state tournament and 14th in the World Championship. Jefferson also hosted the Schweighart Shootout tournament in January, welcoming more than 750 archers to Champaign.
Photos from Unit 4 Facebook page