A Pennsylvania teen archer who has won state, national and world competitions is looking to continue what she learned in high school to help fellow archers in the future.
Madilynn “Madi” Rhinevault, 18, of Montrose High School, Susquehanna County, just competed in the National Archery in the Schools Program (NASP) in state, national and world shoots in Manheim, Louisville, Kentucky, and in Daytona, Florida.
“So three of the four competitions in nationals she won, our state championship she won and then in worlds this past weekend in Daytona, Florida, she placed third in the bullseye and placed first in 3D. She’s absolutely crushing it,” said Kaila Hess, shooting sports coordinator for the Pennsylvania Game Commission, which organizes the program in about 315 schools across Pennsylvania.
In nationals, Rhinevault won first for females in 3D, bullseye and also the centershot tournament.
She also earned a second-place honor in the 3D Centershot missing first place by five points to her teammate Ava Castrogiovanni, also of Montrose High School.
“I was very thankful and super grateful what I was able to do in my last year, to go out like that is very cool,” Rhinevault said. “It’s definitely been a goal of mine, it’s been a goal for a while to place that high at this level. It’s something that I’ve been striving for. It was definitely a personal victory.”
Rhinevault is not new to the world stage. In 2023, she earned first place in the NASP world championship in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, for bullesye and second in 3D shooting.
As a recent high school graduate, she has one more tournament, the NASP/IBO Outdoor World 3D Challenge scheduled Aug. 7-9 in Berkley Springs, West Virginia.
Archery is something she’s been associated with for most of her life.
“I got my first bow, a Genesis, for Christmas when I was 5. And every summer after that we would shoot in my backyard. My dad would shoot his compound and I would shoot my Genesis,” she said.
When Rhinevault entered the third grade she had a new camouflage colored bow and started participating in centershot winter league events. Centershot is a non-denominational outreach program that shares the Gospel of Jesus using the life-skills of Archery
A year later she was able to join her school’s archery team and started shooting in NASP tournaments.
“I’ve been shooting in them ever since,” she said.
Archery appeals to her for a variety of reasons.
“I like things to be organized and consistent and I like routine. And in archery, everything has to be the same every time. The motion has to be repeatable,” she said. “I definitely like that about it, that I can do the same thing every time. But working to make it consistent every time is also a big part of it."
With her shooting a bow for 13 years, she’s had to adjust her shooting form as her body has grown. One of her anchoring points is holding the string tight on her cheek and she could tell a difference when she lost teeth as a young archer.
“Now it’s more consistent,” the young adult said about her anchoring point.
The key to her practice regimen is shooting while she can still maintain her consistent form.
“I practice once a week, for two or three hours. The more that I shoot, if I shoot day after day for hours at a time, I’ll get worse and worse and start to develop problems,” she said. “It really messes up my muscles.”
When she was younger, she shot more often to develop her anchoring point and form during her growth spurts.
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In addition to her competition bow, she also shoots a heavier compound bow that she uses for archery hunts.
“I think that helps, too,” she said. She’s been archery hunting since she was 12 but hasn’t shot a deer with her bow yet. “Unfortunately ,every time I go out, we never end up seeing anything."
Her brother, Logan, 12, and sister, Ali, 16, also participate in the NASP programs.
“Ali’s consistently getting better and better and she keeps improving her personal best score. Logan did really good throughout the last year,” she said, adding that Logan is dealing with the challenges of growing about six inches in the last year.
Regarding competitions, Rhinevault likes meeting other archers.
“NASP gives you the opportunity to meet new people and see new places. I’ve been able to travel all over the country because of it and that’s been huge. I also like the community that it creates. I don’t think you get that in any other sport. We can walk into a tournament and make friends with anyone,” she said. In other sports, she feels other competitors are more like rivals and that is not the feeling in archery tournaments. “I think the community that archery makes is super big and that’s definitely part of why I like it a lot."
The 3D foam animal competitions create unique challenges for archers as you have to know where to aim on the animals that are placed at various distances out to 15 meters.
“You have different aim spots for each animal and then being able to remember them,” Rhinevault said, adding the targets are placed in different terrain.
In bullseye competitions, shots are made at 10 and 15 meters, and she said it’s challenging aiming at the same spot over and over.
For consistency, she said she learned to have three anchoring points with her string. She has the string touch the end of her nose, she rests the string against the same tooth and she keeps her fingers in the same position with each release of the arrow.
“I think that definitely helps with shooting,” she said about having everything the same with each shot.
Her focus and talents stand out
Her skills have been noticed by the state officials with the Game Commission.
“She’s dedicated, focused and humble,” Hess said about Rhinevault’s talents. The young woman’s skills, ambitions and willingness to give back to the sport stand out. This spring, she signed up to be a Basic Archery Instructor (BAI). “She went through an eight-hour course to do that."
At nationals, Rhinevault was able to be there as a competitor and a coach.
“I was able to coach my kids as a real coach for the first time,” Rhinevault said about her teammates. “It was really cool. To be able to actually stand in the coaches’ alley without worrying about getting kicked out. The kids were super happy, too. A lot of times, they are more comfortable with me, just because I’m younger."
Todd Holmes, shooting sports division chief for the Game Commission, has watched Rhinevault shoot over the years.
“I’ve seen her from the very start,” he said, adding that he spent time with her parents, Brad and Nikki. “The cool thing about Madi’s dad is that he always looks angry, all the time, even if he’s happy. He’s super genuine and a super good guy and he’s obviously there for all the right reasons. His kids are his priority and I think that kind of spills over into Madi and Logan in their shooting. Over the years it’s been fun to watch them grow.
“Seeing their progression, and you can watch the competitive instinct that their dad has take over, and you watch them go out and dominate, really. There’s been times when you watch them shoot and they’re so focused and locked in there isn’t anything that’s going to pull them off target."
What’s next for Rhinevault
Rhinevault’s future plans are to continue coaching archery and to study to become a teacher through a local college. She’s also earned several scholarships through archery to help pay for her college expenses.
“I want to be a teacher and hopefully coach (archery) at whichever school,” she said.
She’s also planning to continue competing in archery through the International Bowhunters Organization (IBO) events.
“Who knows, maybe she’ll become a world champion, a national champion in IBO,” Holmes said.
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Archery in the schools
Hess said NASP is helpful to school students on many levels and participation is split 50/50 with boys and girls. At the state tournament this year, Hess enjoyed watching the camaraderie of the students where 948 archers from 55 schools competed.
“I remember one specific instance where there were two boys (maybe fifth grade) on the line together starting a target and they were scoring and after they were done scoring, the one boy shook the other boy’s hand and said, ‘I hope to see you again. I’m glad we can be friends.’ And they just met that day,” she said. “They didn’t see each other as rivals but more as friends.”
Archery is one of the safest sports for students to be involved in at school.
“It’s incredible to see like 1,000 students with bows and arrows in a day and there are zero injuries,” Hess said about the state competition.
Holmes has heard stories from teachers who see the changes in their students when they have something like archery that appeals to their interests.
“School attendance increases when you have NASP in the school. Kids don’t want to miss archery class because they like shooting,” he said. “You start to see their self-esteem and their confidence increase. You start to see them develop new friendships. Archery is kind of cool in that you can have an individual aspect of it, but it’s also a team sport,” he said, comparing it to wrestling.
Archery is something every student can do. Holmes said they’ve been able to adapt bows to help those with physical and vision challenges to succeed.
“We can put a bow in every kid’s hands,” he said. “There’s a lot of opportunities in archery.”
Shooting archery is a fun sport that can involve all members of the family.
“Who doesn’t like shooting a bow? Everybody smiles when they shoot a bow. I have yet to meet somebody that doesn’t have fun when you shoot a bow,” Holmes said.
For schools that want to start participating in NASP, Hess said they can visit pgc.pa.gov for more information.
“They can read a little about it and how we support schools financially with grant money for that and the steps to get that in place at their school,” she said.
Brian Whipkey is the outdoors columnist for USA TODAY Network sites in Pennsylvania. Contact him atbwhipkey@gannett.com and sign up for our weekly Go Outdoors PA newsletter email on this website's homepage under your login name. Follow him on Facebook@whipkeyoutdoors.
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