COOK- North Woods fifth grader Bailey Brunner showed the country why the young Grizzlies archer could be a force for years to come by finishing second in the nation in both bullseye and 3D target competition at the National Archery in the Schools Championships this past weekend in Myrtle Beach, S.C.
Brunner qualified for the championship by winning both events in the NASP Western Nationals in Utah in late April and toed the line against 253 other elementary girls from across the U.S. this past weekend. Shooting on Friday in the multi-day event, her chief competition was the winner of the Eastern Nationals 3D and bullseye events, Gabrielle Trava, of Wisconsin.
Brunner improved two points on her Western Nationals score in the 3D competition, notching a 281 out of a possible 300, but came up two points shy of Trava’s winning mark of 283. Brunner’s mark ranked 62nd among all 1,102 elementary, middle, and high school girls.
In the bullseye competition, Brunner shot a personal best of 288, finishing well ahead of fifth-place Trava, but Kiara Diaz, of Florida, had a lights-out day, hitting 21 tens on the way to a personal best of 289 to edge Brunner by a single point for the title. Brunner had the 33rd best score among all 1,522 elementary, middle, and high school girls competing in the event.
“We actually talked to her (Diaz’s) mom and dad and they were really excited for her to shoot that high, and Bailey and we were, too,” said Jesse Brunner, Bailey’s dad and coach. “I was watching both of them at the same time and I’m looking over at (Diaz) and she was just drilling them in there. She was spot on.”
It was only the second time all season that Bailey finished second in a tournament, and while she has an intense competitive attitude, Brunner said she was satisfied with her performance, given the high level of competition. With a pair of silver medals, Bailey had the best combined performance of all elementary girl archers at the event.
“She was pleased,” he said. “She was disappointed that she didn’t shoot 290 but she was still happy with her 288 because that was still her personal best (in bullseye). We got to meet a lot of new people and it was kind of nice to see other people whose names you’ve seen on scoreboards and you can put a face to them. She was kind of disappointed that she didn’t get to actually meet the Wisconsin girl because they must’ve left after they got done shooting.”
Brunner noted that North Star state archers did well in the tournament.
“Minnesota was well represented down there,” he said. “Our region two took five medals – elementary took two seconds and also a third place, and our high school took a second and first place, and a boy from Princeton took first in both bullseye and 3D, so Minnesota was no slouch.”
While the Brunners returned to the arena on Saturday to watch some of the other Minnesota archers compete, they also took advantage of the Myrtle Beach location to get in “a lot of beach time.”