JACKSONVILLE – Teams from Bald Knob, Corning, White Hall and Bentonville will carry top seeds into this weekend’s Arkansas Youth Shooting Sports Program Senior State Tournament. Meanwhile, junior squads from Cossatot, Beebe, Cabot and Ashdown are the top seeds in the Junior State Tournament, and both events will be staged at the Arkansas Game and Fish Foundation Jacksonville Shooting Sports Complex.

The juniors will decide their champion Friday in a 64-team bracket, while the seniors have the complex Saturday. Shooting on both days begins at 9 a.m., preceded by preliminary activities and the National Anthem starting at 8:15 a.m. The top-seeded teams in both divisions each were champions in the regional rounds held here over a four-weekend period starting in late April.

Teams set their particular seeding by the order of finish in each regional for the finals’ bracket play. Each tournament is staged like an NCAA basketball tournament, where a No. 1 seed squares off against one of four No. 16 seeds, a 2 seed competes against a 15 seed, and so forth. Teams that win the state championship must win six matches without a loss. Third place will also be decided with a sixth match between the semifinal losers.      MORE