Liberty Middle School’s Archery Team stands on the shooting line at the Maverick Shoot-Out at Mill Creek Elementary School. CONTRIBUTED

MADISON – The Archery Team at Mill Creek Elementary School hosted the second annual Maverick Shoot-Out on Jan. 16, 17 and 19. 

“The tournament is a warm-up for schools in Madison that have archery teams and help them prepare for official National Archery in Schools tournaments, which started the following week,” Jennifer Klein said. Klein is Mill Creek’s archery coach and served as tournament director.

“It is great for both new archers and experienced archers to get used to scoring and competing in tournaments and become aware of any changes in rules,” Klein said.

The tournament’s “Over-All Top Girl” was Lizzy Voten, and the “Over-All Top Boy” was Alex King. Voten and King both attend Liberty Middle School.

Top archers among the elementary boys were Mason Stanley, first, Heritage Elementary School; Benjamin Arn, second, West Madison Elementary School; and Alex Lorch, third, Mill Creek.

For the elementary girls, Mill Creek students won the top three places: Mckenna Shelly, first; Bailey Werka, second; and Tara Flynn, third.

Alex King from Liberty Middle School took first place among middle school boys. Evan Baker of Liberty earned second, and Ryan Houserman of Liberty was third.

For the middle school girls, Lizzy Voten of Liberty was first-place winner. Also from Liberty, Kia Craven earned the second rank and Lani Wolf was third.

Team winners in the Maverick Shoot-Out were Mill Creek in first place; Liberty, second; and Columbia Elementary School, third.

This year is Liberty Middle School’s first year to have an archery team. “We are very proud of the performance of our Liberty archers in their first competition,” head coach Cole Kelley said. “We appreciate Mill Creek offering this opportunity. It’s especially helpful to new teams like ours. The tournament was very well organized.”

Liberty students trained and tried out in December 2016, and the new team started practice in January. Molly King is Liberty’s assistant volunteer coach. Alex King and Kia Craven are captains of the Liberty archers.

In addition, the Mill Creek Archery Team conducted a service project to collect donations for Madison Small Pups Rescue agency.