Marble – After a two-year drought, shooting competitions are back in western North Carolina.
Andrews competed in the FarWest Tournament at the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office Shooting Range on Feb. 28, then traveled to Canton on March 5 for the Midwest Competition.
In the FarWest Tournament, Andrews edged Pisgah – with 2,890 team points, to Pisgah’s 2,887 – to win the high school bracket. Bethel (Waynesville) compiled 2,807 to knock off the Andrews Red team (2,734) in the middle-school race.
Collectively, Andrews High School recorded 971 points in archery, 939 in rifle and 980 in trap. The Andrews Middle School Red team had a 940/824/970 split, while Andrews Middle School White went 909/782/880, finishing with 2,571 points overall.
Dalton Rose led Andrews High with 591 individual points. He scored a perfect 200 in both archery and trap, plus a 191 in rifle. For Andrews Middle Red, Madison Queen posted a 568: a 195 in archery, 190 in trap and 183 in rifle. Andrews Middle White was paced by Tyler Queen, who shot 190 in trap, 181 in archery and 175 in rifle for a tally of 546.
In the Midwest Competition, Andrews High placed third overall in both the both the rifle and archery, while Andrews Middle placed second overall. At the middle school level, the Wildcats placed first in rifle, second in archery and third in shotgun. Madison Queen placed second overall in the middle school competition, including second place in rifle and third place in archery.
Andrews will compete in the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission’s 44th annual Youth Hunter Education Skills Tournament at the district level in March 19 at Polk County Gun Club in Columbus. The event will include competitions in shotgun, archery, rifle, orienteering and a written hunter’s exam.
A total of 60 teams will move on to the state tournament, which will take place Saturday, April 30, at the Lentz Hunter Education Complex in Ellerbe. Last year, Andrews won the district event for the first time in school district history and placed second at the state tournament.