Students at North Middle School are celebrating a major accomplishment as two teams prepare to represent Montana on the national stage.
Both the school’s archery team and a science academic bowl team have qualified for national competitions, earning recognition during a school assembly Friday afternoon.
Brianna Juneau reports - watch the video here:
Archery coach Jeff Rieger says the program has grown quickly since it was introduced to Montana just a few years ago.
“The National Archery in the School’s program that we follow is a nationwide program that was brought to Montana five years ago,” Rieger said. “It’s an amazing program.”
This season, the team has had remarkable success.
“This year has been amazing. We’ve competed in five tournaments and won them all,” Rieger said. “So that’s pretty fantastic.”
Earlier this week, the team competed in the state tournament against 22 schools and more than 400 student archers. North Middle School finished on top, earning a trip to nationals in Utah this April.
“We just competed in the state tournament earlier this week, that was our big one,” Rieger said. “There were 22 different schools from around the state, over 400 students there. Now that we won, we go to Utah to compete in Nationals in April.”
Out of the team’s 30 students, 19 will travel to the national competition.
“The kids are pretty stoked to go,” Rieger said.
For many students, the biggest reward has been watching their skills grow.
“The coolest part is to see all of the growth and to watch kids go from never touching a bow one year to being able to score rounds of 100, 200 points in just a few months time,” Rieger said.
Eighth grader Emily Canine, who took first place in both of the events she competed in at the state tournament, says the sport has become a big part of her life.
“This is my fourth year,” Canine said. “I just like getting to meet new people and finding other people that also like doing archery, as well as having another thing I can do with my friends.”
While she’s excited about the national competition, she admits it also comes with some nerves.
“This will be my first time going to nationals,” Canine said. “I’m excited, but I’m kind of nervous about it. So it’s like a big deal.”
Teammate Grant Golik says the state tournament was both exciting and nerve-wracking.
“State, it was a lot of fun,” Golik said. “I was pretty nervous, kind of going up there to shoot, but it went pretty well overall for how the entire team did.”
Nationals will be especially meaningful for Golik as it marks the final competition of his middle school archery career.
“I’m most looking forward to just competing again at Nationals, knowing that this is going to be my last tournament for the middle school team,” he said.
The students were also recognized during a school pep assembly, something Golik says means a lot.
“Yeah, it does feel pretty nice knowing that I have friends and just the whole school supporting us,” he said.
Meanwhile, North Middle School is also celebrating a major academic achievement.
A team from the school’s Science Academic Bowl has qualified for nationals after an undefeated season.
Science teacher and coach Mary Somerfeld says both the Science Olympiad and Science Academic Bowl competitions challenge students across multiple fields.
“Science Olympiad is an event that’s in Bozeman every year with 15 different events, and the kids compete with schools across the state,” Somerfeld said.
The Science Academic Bowl, she says, focuses more on quick knowledge across science and mathematics disciplines.
“It’s more of a quiz bowl over all branches of science and mathematics,” Somerfeld said. “This year we had 14 or 15 teams we competed against, and North got to take two teams. Both North teams were undefeated and finished at the top of their division.”
Only one team from the school ultimately advanced to nationals, earning a trip to Washington, D.C. at the end of April. The trip will be paid for by the Department of Energy.
Somerfeld says the accomplishment is the result of months of preparation.
“They are prepping. They’re learning. They’re studying. They’re researching and becoming experts on so many things since September,” Somerfeld said. “So when we get to the competition, that’s like their payday.”
For student George Ruddy, all of that hard work has been worth it.
“Every last second of it makes you happy that you took the time and went an hour and a half after school three days a week to sit in a science room and learn that stuff,” Ruddy said. “It’s a lot of work, but it has a huge payout.”
Student Jonah Crist says qualifying for nationals still feels surreal.
“I was so excited,” Crist said. “It was kind of surreal, but I still can’t really believe that we’re going. It’s pretty amazing that we made this Montana team.”
Both teams were recognized during the school’s assembly Friday afternoon before they head off to represent their school and state at national competitions later this spring.