Mesabi East has been a part of the NASP (National Archery in the Schools Program) since the 2011-2012
school year – with the help of our local Community Education Program & the Mesabi East School
District. Mesabi East is a part of Region 2 in northern Minnesota and during our main season we
primarily shoot against other schools in the region which include Mt. Iron-Buhl, Grand Rapids, Hill City,
Hibbing, Cook, Ely, Greenway and of course us over at Mesabi East.

NASP teaches students in grades 4-12 target style archery using Genesis bows that range from 11-20
pounds. Each student must use the same type of bow, and none of the bows are allowed to have sights
or any markings that might be used as sights. This makes it so the student must use their talent and skills
to figure out where to aim to get the best score he or she can get. One of the great things about archery
is virtually every student can shoot a bow. Archery can be a very calming sport for many kids and they
love seeing how they improve over the seasons that they shoot.

The Mesabi East Elementary Archery team (4th & 5th graders) placed 3rd place at our state competition
in Bemidji on the weekend of March 23-24, 2018. The top 3 teams qualify for Nationals, which is being
held in Louisville, Kentucky on the weekend of May 11-12th . We had 17 elementary students who shot at
state this year and 16 of these students will now be vying for their first shot at a National archery title.
These students have practiced very hard over the course of the year and have improved greatly.

The Elementary team had a great season this year and finished in the following positions at each of our
meets.

• Greenway – 2 nd out of 6
• Mesabi East (home) – 1st out of 4
• Hill City – 1 st out of 6
• Grand Rapids – 1 st out of 6
• Regions tournament (Cook) – 1 st out of 6
• State (Bemidji) – 3 rd out of 10

To have a team, there has to be at least 12 students from the specified grades that shoot. The top 12
scores are then calculated to find out the team score. The Mesabi East Elementary team who have
qualified for Nationals include (with their score at state): Kiera Saumer (274), Nevaeh Locken (260),
Owen Lalonde (258), Matias Honkola (257), Johanna Knapper (247), Addisyn Lesnau (243), Lillian
Bockelmann (230), Kylee Irgang (230) , Hayden Baxter (230), George Maish (224), Zade Baker (221), Lexi
Getty (218), Nicholas Boben (211), Olivia Larson (211), Colin Anderson (209), Koryn Shermer (167),
McKenzie Clement (160).

We also have 3 archers who individually qualified for Nationals, the top 10 individuals from each
category qualify for state.

• Allie Mitchell (an 8 th grader), who held first place the majority of the day finished in 6 th place out
  of 287 Middle School Girls, 3 rd out of 96 8 th grade girls & 20 th out of 668 girls total. She shot a 283
  (her new high score) out of a possible 300.
• Kiera Saumer (a 4th graders, qualified individually & as part of the elementary team) finished in
  4th out of 144 in Elementary Schools Girls, 1st out of 66 4th grade girls and 87th out of 668 girls.
• David Reinke (a senior this year), qualified for the 3D shoot by finishing 7th out of 70 archers, 1st
  out of 6 12th grade boys and 7th out of 181 total males.

With this qualification we have 18 students and 3 coaches who will be going to Louisville, Kentucky. We
will be leaving May 9th and coming home on May 13th . This trip will be our first trip as a team and will be
a very expensive trip. If you would like to help donate to our trip you are welcome to send donations to:
Please make sure all checks are made out to: M.E.A.B.C. Our Tax ID #45-4617207

M.E.A.B.C. (Directly to the archery program)
117 W 3 rd Ave N
Aurora, MN 55705

Tech Bytes (Will bring to the archery program)
410 Jones St
Eveleth, MN 55734

All of us coaches would like to wish our Elementary Team, Kiera Saumer, Allie Mitchell & David Reinke
good luck at Nationals and of course hope everyone has a great time! We also would like to thank
everyone who has helped in any way, shape or form to make the NASP program a success at Mesabi
East Archery. We hope to keep this program growing as it has for the last several years and hopefully
make more trips to Nationals in the near future.