Archers set to flood Jamestown for annual tournament
· Yahoo Sports
Feb. 4—JAMESTOWN — For the past four years, Chris Althoff has been floored by the number of preregistrations he has received for the Annual St. John's Academy Archery Tournament.
This year is no exception.
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"This will be the most kids we've ever had for a tournament," said Althoff, an assistant coach with the St. John's Academy archery team. "We've opened up some additional rounds to help get more kids in and make things available to all of them who want to participate."
The 2026 St. John's Academy Archery Tournament is set to run Feb. 5-7. This winter marks the fourth year St. John's is hosting an archery tournament through the National Archery in the Schools Program (NASP).
There are currently 25 different schools planning to participate in the tournament.
Some schools like New Rockford will bring more than 80 archers to the tournament. Carrington is on the books to bring 65 athletes. This winter marks the second year New Rockford and Carrington have competed in the tournament. LaMoure/Litchville-Marion is an example of a school that is new to the archery program that will only bring a handful of students.
The tournament is welcoming 25 teams from around the state. Teams are coming from as far west as Richardton-Taylor and as far north as Rolla. Teams like Casselton will be driving west, while Ellendale will be making the trip up from the southern part of the state.
There are two different shooting events set to run this weekend. The first is a bullseye competition where archers shoot three arrows from a distance of 10 meters and three arrows from 15 meters. The second event is the 3D range competition. This contest boasts a series of 3D animal targets.
"When we started, the goal was just to give the kids an opportunity to shoot a home tournament instead of having to travel for all their tournaments," Althoff said. "It has progressed and grown every year since. It's a program that kids continued to want to join. ... We've got more than 550 individual kids registered, and we'll probably see more than 1,000 rounds shot between bullseye and 3D."
Of those 550 archers, St. John's Academy will have 40 athletes competing in the tournament, while the Jamestown High School team expects to see most of its 17-man roster compete. Jamestown High School's team was developed last summer.
"My daughter has been on the archery team (at St. John's) for several years, and I was noticing that students who were transitioning from the middle school at SJA to the high school were no longer able to shoot as there wasn't a team at that level," Jamestown High School head coach Jennifer Lipetzsky said.
"I had talked about it with other parents, but the task of starting a program is significant and there wasn't anyone who wanted to take it on themselves," she said. "I decided with the help of two others to push forward in setting the foundation for the team over the summer. We were successful and were able to recruit some experienced archers for our first year."
Due to limited resources, the Jamestown High School archery program has not been opened up to the entire student body. Rather, those currently on the JHS team are all athletes who have shot archery through NASP previously.
"The Jamestown High School Archery Program is dedicated to developing well-rounded student-athletes through comprehensive archery education and training," Lipetzsky said. "Our program combines technical instruction, academic support, leadership development and community engagement to inspire confidence, discipline and achievement in every participant."
Lipetzsky said the JHS team started practicing in October and then began competing at tournaments a few weeks ago. The team will continue each weekend until the end of March, when qualifiers attend the state tournament in Minot. National qualifiers will go on to compete at the national tournament in Utah at the end of April.
"We have seen several of our archers finish these tournaments on the leader-board, placing in the top five and setting personal bests for themselves," Lipetzsky said. "I would like to thank everyone who made it possible for us to get up and running this year, such as North Dakota Bowhunters Association, North Dakota Game and Fish, Applied Digital and ArchersUSA.
"I'd like to offer a special thank you to Stutsman County Wildlife," she said. "They have generously given us space to practice as well as equipment. These types of investments in our club will ensure the program's long-term sustainability, broaden participation and continue empowering youth through the lifelong discipline and tradition of archery."
The Jamestown High School team is one of the programs that will be taking part in a new event at this year's tournament.
"We have added varsity archery this year with the addition of the high school team, which is a whole new bow for our archers," Lipetzsky said. "It is a compound bow with a site, stabilizer and release, which has more accessories than what we can shoot prior to high school. It will be our first experience shooting this bow in competition, but it will prepare us for what to expect in some of the tournaments coming up."
The varsity shooters will be shooting a bullseye and 3D round. Lipetzsky said of the shooters on her team, half will be participating in the varsity division.
The tournament will feature bullseye rounds at St. John's Academy on Thursday from 6 to 7:30 p.m., Friday from 4:30-8:10 p.m., and Saturday from from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. The 3D and varsity flights will be held at Jamestown Middle School Friday evening and on Saturday.
Who is shooting in what flight is determined by the competing school's schedule.
"It's based on what time works best for the school," Althoff said. "In bullseye, we'll have 16 targets and two kids per target, so there will be 32 spots in that flight. You may have a fourth grader shooting with a high schooler — it's not segregated by gender or age. They are all shooting the same bow, and they are all scoring the same."
Winners are determined by the tournament in different categories. The categories are high school, middle school, elementary school and female and male. Medallions will be awarded for the top five males and top five females of each division.
As of Jan. 30, Althoff said there were 286 females and 287 males registered for the tournament — numbers that have required some extra help for the tournament to go off without any hitches.
"We have 30 or 40 volunteers who help to put this on," Althoff said. "It's amazing from the volunteer coaches to the volunteers who help in the tournament — we couldn't do it without them. Both the Jamestown Middle School and St. John's Academy, we are really grateful for the facilities that they provide. It truly takes a village to put this on. It'll be exciting to see how it goes this weekend."