The Benton Elementary archery team can officially call themselves world champions.
The fourth and fifth grade students clinched the title of Elementary World Champions at the 2014 National Archery in the Schools Program (NASP) World Tournament in Madison, Wisconsin. Benton’s team competed against the best archers from (literally) around the world, including Africa, Canada, England and Mexico.
The public is invited to attend a celebratory pep rally in their honor at 5 p.m. Thursday, July 17, in the Benton Elementary gymnasium.
Under the direction of Coach Perry Norcross, the team was named elementary state champions for 2013-14 and placed eighth in the nation in May at the NASP tournament in Louisville, Kentucky.
To put their win into perspective, NASP is the largest youth archery program in the world. At the 2014 National Tournament, nearly 10,450 student archers competed, setting a new Guinness World Record. The 4th-12th graders represented 665 schools in 39 states.
