SPORTS
Sears wins U.S. field archery title
A local compound archer won the U.S. National Field Archery Championship in the junior men’s division and earned a spot as team captain of his division for Team USA as he competed June 8-10 at Darrington, WA.
Gold-Burg High School incoming senior Connor Sears won a brutal competition that was different than any other in the world.
Archers had 24 targets to shoot while hiking through the mountain and wooded areas of Darrington. The targets they were shooting at were also unmarked, meaning archers had to judge the size of the targets face, the angle they had to shoot and the distance. This was done while hiking through a course with crazy inclines which is challenging enough just to hike.
None of this fazed Sears much. Field archery is his favorite type of competition due to the added challenge of contest variance. The hiking and rain were no big deal, as well since he enjoys the outdoors.
He finished first overall in 18-20 men’s junior compound bow division despite being 17-years-old and competing against guys who are not just older, but some have experience participating in pro competitions. He won by 10 points which is a pretty comfortable margin.
Added on to the competition was the U.S. Trials for the field archery team which will travel to Cortina, Italy this September for the World Championship.
Out of 160 participants split up by two age groups, two bow types and gender, only 24 ended up making the team. Only the top three in each division made the team, with the top finisher being named captain.
The top eight in each division competed an extra day to see which three would earn their way onto the team and who would be team captain. Sears won that as well to earn the captain title.
To read more, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.
Prairie Valley
The Prairie Valley Bulldogs had a good final non-district warm-up on Friday at home against Ector.
The Eagles beat the Bulldogs 69-63 in a game where Prairie Valley was trying to play catch up all the way through.
The Bulldogs were coming off a tough tournament at Electra the previous week to try and knock the holiday rust off. Prairie Valley was familiar with Ector, having played the team to start its season back in early November and was hoping to compete better than it did in that first game.
The Eagles came out firing, splashing five 3-pointers, including several deep ones, to go out to a 21-8 lead in the first quarter. Even with the Bulldogs changing out of their preferred zone defense, the 3-pointers continued a bit and opened things up inside the arc.
Thankfully, Prairie Valley’s offense came alive in the second quarter, scoring 18 points and cutting the lead down to 38-26 at halftime.
The third quarter was more of the same, though a different player for Ector started to get hot from beyond the arc. Even as the Bulldogs were able to keep up their offensive production from the second quarter, they could not break through and cut the game to single-digits, trailing 54-42 heading into the final period.
The fourth quarter saw Prairie Valley break through to cut it the lead to single-digits, but just not close enough. Every time the Bulldogs were on the cusp of making it a one or two basket game, the Eagles would make a shot to keep that distance.
In the end, the final score was the closest Prairie Valley got as Ector won 69-63.
Nocona
The Nocona Indians bounced back with a competitive district win at Petrolia on Friday.
The Indians won 60-53 against the Pirates in a game where the middle quarters took drastic swings in momentum.
Nocona was coming off its first district loss against Windthorst as the team sat a 1-1 district record.
Petrolia came into the game at 0-1, but had a bit more time to prepare for the game.
The first quarter was competitive, but the Indians were able to get to the free throw line at will and led 16-11.
Then Nocona’s pressure defense turned up its intensity in the second quarter.
“Our pressure seemed to disrupt them and we were able to get out in transition after forcing turnovers,” Coach Brody Wilson said.
Nocona scored 25 points and led 41-25 at halftime.
Unfortunately, that intensity did not keep up at the start of the third quarter for Nocona.
The Indians took their foot off the gas a little bit which allowed Petrolia’s offense to get back into the game and make up some of the deficit.
The Pirates outscored Nocona 15-7 and trailed only 48-40 heading into the final period.
Thankfully, the Indians bounced back and competed a bit better in the fourth quarter. Nocona was able to keep offensive pace to keep Petrolia at a bit of a distance instead of making it a one score game.
The Indians held on to win 60-53.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekly Bowie News.
For more pictures from the Prairie Valley game, click here https://www.dotphoto.com/go.asp?l=bnews1&AID=6871971&T=1
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