Archery Champ

Sheyenne is home to the best male archer in the nation. Layton Jacobson, a seventh grader at New Rockford-Sheyenne school and Sheyenne resident, earned top honors at national competition this past weekend.

At the 2022 NASP Western Nationals in Sandy, Utah, Jacobson shot a near-perfect score of 295 with 26 tens, six points higher than his previous best and just five short of a perfect 300.

His outstanding performance earned him first place among 106 seventh grade boys, 313 middle school boys, and all 755 male archers in attendance. Only one archer at the entire tournament scored better: Cheyanne Slaughter, a high school junior from Utah who shot a 296.

For his efforts, Jacobson was awarded a first place plaque, an overall boys trophy, a bow that says "champion," a target, a dozen arrows and a $1,099 certificate for a Mathews bow.

Despite his age, Jacobson has already made a habit of performing well under pressure. Before this years' nationals, his previous best score of 289 came during last years' national tournament, where he finished seventh among more than 1,200 sixth graders nationwide.

"What helps me shoot well is thinking it does not matter what I shoot, so then I am not stressed or anything," said Jacobson.

Jacobson added that he didn't expect to finish among the top 100 archers at the tournament, let alone in first place, but expressed plenty of thanks for those that helped him get there.

"I would mostly like to thank Mike Schaefer for coaching me all these years," said Jacobson. "Kyle Alfstad for helping me with my bow, Scott Skjerva for helping to coach and Jamie Risovi for teaching me how to shoot a bow."

He added, "I would also like to thank the school and all the people and organizations that helped make my trip so awesome!"

"I'm just super proud of him," said Mike Schaefer, head coach for NR-S archery. "You hope when a kid goes to an event like that, that he has a day like that ... and I'd say he did. He set a new personal best and he really just rose to the occasion."

Schaefer hopes Jacobson's success will inspire other students to join archery and help them realize that anyone, no matter their age, gender or where they're from, is capable of great things with a bow and arrow.

Jacobson said one of his favorite aspects about archery is traveling somewhere new every month, and added that this latest trip to Utah was a great experience.

"It was great!" he exclaimed. "All the places we stopped at were awesome and shooting in that place was cool, too." Jacobson also enjoyed racing go-karts in Sandy, he said.

His other favorite part about archery is, of course, "going up to get a medal," something Jacobson has plenty of experience doing, and something he'll have another chance to do this summer, as he'll be competing at the World Tournament in Louisville, Kentucky in June.

According to Schaefer, it's not often that a student from NR-S competes at the World Tournament, but after his outstanding performance at nationals, Jacobson is sure to enter the event as a favorite; last year's winning score was 299.

Meanwhile, a number of other archers from NR-S also competed at the Western Nationals in Utah. Fisher Genre scored 250 points and Koy Zieman scored 244, good enough for 35th in the fifth-grade boys' rank and 54th in the sixth-grade boys rank, respectively.

In the Western National IBO 3D Challenge, Jacobson and Hunter Genre led the way for NR-S with 273 and 272 points, respectively, good enough for a top-10 in their corresponding grades.

With a score of 261, Fisher Genre finished with a top-5 in the fifth-grade boys rank in the 3D Challenge, and Braylon Alfstad scored 240 to finish 45th out of 121 among the elementary boys.

For most archers, the season has now come to a close, and Schaefer said it was a successful season for the entire NR-S archery program.

"I thought they did a fantastic job," he said. "We had a great season, we had some kids make some great progress, and I'm super excited to see how they do next year."

As for Jacobson, his season continues at the World Tournament this summer, which takes place at the Kentucky Exposition Center in Louisville, from June 23 - 25.