Archery club caps season of success

The Moose Jaw Thunder Creek Archery Club keeps racking up the hardware as their highly successful season nears its end.
The club picked up 12 medals in four events in the past month, including nine golds.
At the field provincial shoot in July, Tyler Moore, Trevour Payne and Jason Luciak picked up gold, silver and bronze respectively. Moore also set a new Canadian record at the event.
But at the 3D provincial championship the following day, the locals really cleaned up. Eight archers took part in the event, with Emma Hill, Keenan Ivey, Moore and Bobby Brown winning gold and Triston Hill picking up a bronze.
At the start of August, Moore took home the North Dakota state 3D outdoor championship title, recording the highest score of all classes at the event.
And last week, Brown won two gold medals at the Wascana Fall Shoot in Regina, while Kacey Patton picked up her first gold at the same event.
With such an impressive list of titles and victories, one might wonder how exactly Moose Jaw produces so many of the province's top archers.
"Pretty much every shoot that we go to, Moose Jaw represents very well," says Moore. "Guys are just dedicated to the shooting."
Practice makes perfect, as that old chestnut goes, and that may play a role in the success of the club.
"We have 24-hour access to our club, whereas some clubs don't have that access," he says.
But Moore is quick to put the credit squarely on the club's members rather than anything else.
"We just have a good group of dedicated shooters, and that's what it boils down to."
Moore is having a stellar season. In addition to his provincial and North Dakotan titles, he finished seventh out of 58 shooters at the Canadian outdoor national championships.
But the win south of the border ranks highly in his books.
"I kind of surprised myself," says Moore. "They've got some pretty good elite shooters down there. I was quite proud of that one there."
With hunting season less than two weeks away, the target season is all but over for the club.
"Now it's hunting season," he says. "The target bows go away for a couple months as everyone gets ready to go hunting.
"Once it starts to get cold, everybody starts to get ready for the target season again, and we'll get started again in January."

Taylor Lambert can be reached at 691-1260