Wesley LaPointe of Caribou and Brayden Castonguay of Washburn have both advanced to the Elks Hoop Shoot state finals, to be held in Bath Jan. 29.
The two, representing Presque Isle Lodge 1954, won the 10-11 and 12-13 age divisions, respectively, at the Northern Districts of the Maine Elks Association. That competition was held Jan. 15 at the James F. Doughty School in Bangor.
Lapointe netted 19 of his 25 attempts to move on in his division, while Castonguay connected on 20 of his 25 attempts to claim first in his category.
Faith Sjoberg of Presque Isle also won, making 23 of 25 of her attempts to tie for first in the 12-13 girls’ bracket before converting all five of her shoot-off shots to come out on top.
Three other local youth captured runner-up honors: Ainsley Caron of Washburn in the girls’ 8-9 division, Raiden Cochran of Easton in the boys’ 8-9 division and Olivia Locke of Mapleton in the girls’ 10-11 division.
At the upcoming state event, district winners will compete against other winners from the Maine Elks’ Central and Coastal districts for the right to advance to the New Englands in March.
“In all, our six young competitors from the Presque Isle Elks Lodge Hoop Shoot came home with three first-place trophies and three second-place awards,” said local Hoop Shoot director William Sewall. “Absolutely outstanding.”
All six local shooters had advanced at the school/recreation level in December and then at the lodge level, which took place Jan. 8 in Presque Isle.
