BEAR CREEK — Students from Randolph County were among the top entrants in the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission’s Youth Hunter Education Skills Tournament held for District 5 earlier this month at Chatham County Wildlife Club.
In the high school division, Providence Grove was the overall team runner-up to Southern Alamance among 41 team entries. Wheatmore placed fifth and Randleman was sixth.
Austin Williams of Providence Grove had the top score in archery among 203 participants.
Second place and third place went to Wheatmore’s Stephen Marshall and Austin Cox. All three of those entrants had scores of 199, but their placements were determined by tiebreakers.
In hunter kills, Williams was the winner with 168 points compared to runner-up Will Faulk’s 162 for Southeast Guilford.
In rifle, Cash Brown of Providence Grove had the top score with 197, a total matched by Marshall. Brown was the winner based on tiebreaker criteria. Williams was third with 196.
Providence Grove had the top team score in rifle, followed by Wheatmore, while Randleman was fifth.
In shotgun, Brown, Williams and Seth Turner were among the top Randolph County entrants with 200 points. Cooper Wright of Providence Grove, Ethan Hulin and Dillon Kology of Randleman and Carson Albertson of Wheatmore were also among that group.
In the middle school division, the top score in archery among 94 participants went to Trevor Kirkman of Northeastern Randolph Middle School. His score was 193.
That carried Northeastern Randolph Middle School to the event victory with 909 points, finishing ahead of Southern Alamance Middle School’s 901.
Kirkman also had the best score in hunter skills with 154 as Northeastern Randolph Middle School placed second in that category.
For middle school rifle, the winner was Dylan Pierce of Northeastern Randolph Middle School with 190. Kirkman was fourth with 182 and Williams was fifth with a 181.
In shotgun, Colson Allen of Uwharrie Charter School matched the best score with 200 and was dubbed as the runner-up based on tiebreakers.
These competitions were held at nine locations across the state on the past four Saturdays. More than 3,500 students were signed up to take part in the 44th year of the tournaments. Orienteering and a written hunting skills exam were also part of the competition, which was open to students ages 18 and younger. District 5 consists of 11 counties.
