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Magnolia High School Senior Mason Dowell on Verge Of Triple Crown

Photo by Bruce Crawford Pictured is Mason Dowell shooting his bow.

Magnolia High School senior Mason Dowell is one win away from winning the national triple crown of archery the 17-year-old division in Clarion, Pa., this year, July 8-10.

Dowell started archery after watching a friend shoot. He liked what he saw and decided to give the sport a try.

His first competitive match was in Flatwoods, W.Va., three years ago. He finished second in an Open A, (All-Adults). After this, he really got the itch for archery and trained as many as four to five hours a day. As a student at Magnolia High School he wanted to keep his grades up and would sometimes practice only a couple hours when he knew he had to study hard for a test.

Dowell’s latest match was in Bloomington, Ind., in his YMR age bracket two weeks ago. He won the second leg on the National Triple Crown Championship, and won the first leg at Pipestem National Park.

This year he has won all eight Ohio state championships he competed in, with the latest one during the Memorial Day weekend. He also has won his first and only West Virginia State Championship last season.

He also won a World Championship in August of 2015 in Ellicottville, N.Y.

Dowell practices in his grandparent’ side yard, and when he isn’t practicing there, he will be out New Milton practicing for 3D competitions.

Dowell strives to shoot in more competitions  to build his resume and hopefully attract sponsors to help him with his entry fee.

He has Pure Perfection Strings, The Bow Shop, B Stringer Stabilizers and Gold Tip Arrows as his sponsors to date, but his major sponsor is his grandparents, Roy and Linda Dowell, who bought him his first bow and has taken him to many matches since seventh and eighth grade.

“If it wasn’t for my grandparents, I would have never gotten to do what I have done so far and I thank them so, so much to my success,” said Dowell He will compete in 10 national, two World and a state championship this year.

He has five bows and five dozen arrows that he uses to compete and practice with, while only using one of the bows during competition. “I have five bows, but I only will use the one that’s winning,” explained Dowell.

There are some competitions that he enters that are 3D (unknown yardage) that the shooters do not know what they will be shooting at.

It could be said that Dowell trains like Rocky Balboa did for his title fights in the movie Rocky: Full speed ahead. and trains between two houses with neighbors and his girl friend helping him with the concentration, by  whistling, yelling and honking their horns.

If anyone would like to help Dowell with his rise to be a professional, please contact him through the Wetzel Chronicle Facebook page.

We will relay the information to Dowell so that he may reach out.

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