For the third straight year, and in just its third year of existence, North Scott's archery team is ready to make some noise on the state's big stage.
Less than a month after hosting their first regional invitational tournament in The Pit, 24 Lancers archers will be heading to Des Moines on Saturday and Sunday to compete in the state tournament at the Iowa State Fairgrounds.
The Lancers qualified as the 15th ranked team, which is the highest ranking in school history. The team features 60 archers, but only 24 can attend the tournament.
"The coaches had to determine which students would represent North Scott," said Lancer coach Troy Bendickson. "Seventeen of our archers actually qualified as individuals, so they were the first 17 chosen. The others were chosen using four different statistical categories."
Lily Bendickson is the team's highest ranked archer, and she is 29th out of 660 high school female archers. She was ranked 17th at one point this season.
Caden Youngquest is North Scott's highest ranked male archer, as he ended up 36th out of 754 archers.
The 17 Lancers who qualified as individuals include: Katrine Breyholtz-Mott, Gabe Kain, Wyatt Gentz, Brady Elbe, Ivory Butler, Allen Kayla, MacKenzie Duncan, Kyle Skinner, Hunter Orcutt, Trevor Gehring, Ryan Mentzer, Brock Tyler, Madison Knoche, Shawn Kundel and Halea Osborn.
Rounding out North Scott's state tournament squad are: Glory Hansel, Kale Rohlf, Chloe Brookhart, Alexander Upmeyer, Drew Van Hal, Bailey Vanacker and Mikayla Bagdonas.
In its second year of existence, North Scott Junior High's team met the minimum state qualifying score for the first time, however it wasn't ranked high enough to make the cut for state competition.
Still, nine individuals qualified for state, including Dylan Orcutt, Olivia Richards, Luke Simmons, Aidan McLaughlin, Hunter Dean, Cole Stratman, Eve Landers, Peyton Pewe and Zac Plett.
Orcutt finished ninth out of 1,091 middle school archers.
North Scott hosted its first-ever invitational in The Pit on Feb. 15. Bendickson finished first among the high school girls, scoring 285 out of a possible 300 points.
Youngquist placed second among high school boys with a 286, while Kain placed third with 275.
Dylan Orcutt finished first among junior high boys with a score of 279.
As many as 30 archers at a time stood on the west side of the court and aimed at targets on the east side.
The high school and junior high teams placed second among five high schools and five junior high and elementary teams.
Other top Lancer finishers included high schoolers Breyholtz-Mott, Allison Stick-Mueller, Mentzer, Duncan, Brookhart, Skinner and Butler.
Top junior high finishers included Simmons, Dean, Richards, Landers, McLaughlin, Plett, Falcon Green, Kelan Gamet and Everett Broberg.
Bellevue’s high school and junior high teams won the competition.
Other participating schools included Bellevue High and Middle Schools; Central DeWitt High and Junior High Schools; Marquette Catholic High School and Williamsburg High and Junior High Schools.
North Scott archery team members include:
High school
Kayla Allen, Blake Andrews, Bailey Andry, Mikayla Bagdonas , Rachel Bauswell, Lily Bendickson, Nolan Blodig, Amanda Borkhart, Katrine Breyholtz-Mott, Chloe Brookhart, Ivory Butler, Anthony Carter, Jarrett Claeys, Sophie Cox, Will Dowda , Mackenzie Duncan, Brady Elbe, Nathan Elbe, Draven Esser, Kevin Flynn, Torrance Foit, Trevor Gehring, Owen Gentz, Wyatt Gentz, Hailey Glover, Glory Hansel, Trinity Jewell, Sierra Johnson, Blake Kadlec, Gabe Kain, Madison Knoche, Jessica Kroeger, Shawn Kundel, Anna Marple, Taylor Mayhue, Raven McCabe, Ryan Mentzer, Matthew Mize, Delaney Norris, Hunter Orcutt, Halea Osborn, Josey Pardee, Adriana Phillips, Carly Porter, Dominic Powers, Kale Rohlf, Kaidance Ruser, Andrew Skinner, Kyle Skinner, Allison Stick-Mueller, Brock Tyler, Alex Upmeyer, Drew Van Hal, Bailey Vanacker, Paige Westlin, Kyleigh Westlin, Ben Williams, Ben Wright, Emily Wright, Caden Youngquist.
Junior high
Charity Bendickson, James Borkhart, Everett Broberg, Katelyn Buckley, Hunter Dean, Kennedy Dietel, Cameron Dobereiner, Jaedyn Dossett, Olivia Freund, Kelan Gamet, Falcon Green, Lennon Headley, Wayne Huntley, Kalob James-Kroeger, Trevor Johnson, Kyle Kundel, Justin Lafrenz, Eve Landers, Kami Langan, Jax Martin, Aidan Mclaughlin, Beau Morgan, Brent Morgan, Dylan Orcutt, Lauren Pawloski, Gustavo Perez-Espina, Peyton Pewe, Zander Pewe, Zachary Plett, Kaylen Renner-Arjes, Olivia Richards, Gage Rickard, Keidryn Saunders, Isaiah Serrano, Luke Simmons, Savannah Skinner, Cole Stratman, Denver Welvaert, Cole Wolf.