On Saturday, March 23, the Joliet Central JROTC Archery team was crowned state champions at the inaugural NASP State of Illinois Archery Championship in the JROTC division.

National Archery in the Schools Program (NASP) is a national archery program for students in grades 3 through 12.  NASP in conjunction with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources hosted the first state of Illinois archery championship in Champaign. Joliet Central JROTC competed with eighteen other state-qualifying JROTC teams from eight JROTC programs across the state.  Each team of six archers shoots at distances of 10 meters and 15 meters at bullseye targets with a perfect score being 300 points per individual archer.

The Joliet Central team consisted of team captain Aren Burman (sr), Lauren Berrios (jr), Rusten Deihs (jr), Vicente Matamoros (so), Alexa Ordaz (sr), and Marjorie Santos (so).  Central shot a total of 1604/1800 points to capture first place.  The Joliet Central Archery State Champion Coach is Master Sergeant Gary McClellan.

Lauren Berrios also achieved individual honors by shooting 283/300 points.  This was the highest individual JROTC score at the state championship.  Lauren was recognized for her excellence by receiving a $1000 college scholarship and a new competition Genesis compound bow.