The Elm Street Middle School gym was packed last Saturday, as a large number of area youths competed in the 41st annual Greater Nashua Elks Hoop Shoot free throw contest.

Six Nashua youths won their respective levels – Tilak Patel, Rachel Holden, Rita Dow, Josh Demoura, Emma Charron and Sebastion Coelho.

Two of the three “hottest hands” in the contest were in the 12-13 Boys Division with Patel and Spencer Desrosier ending in a tie for first place with 18 free throws out of 25 attempts. A five-shot tiebreaker saw Patel, last year’s Elks 10-11 Boys Regional Champion, sink three to Desrosier’s two as he went on to the Boys 12-13 Division title. Jeffrey Reza finished in third place.

Demoura won the Boys 10-11 Division with 13 free throws and runner-up honors went to Keith Walker Dow with Joey Morse finishing third. Coelho had the third “hottest Hand” with 18 free throws to win the 8-9 Boys Division. Runner-up was Rishi Patel with 17 free throws, and Arden Smith placed third. Holden won the 12-13 Girls Championship.

A 3-way tie for first place in the 10-11 Girls Division with 13 free throws each saw Dow sinking four out of five in the tiebreaker, followed by Jasmine Sylveter and Shannon Grady in second and third, respectively.

Finishing behind Charron in the Girls 8-9 Division were runner-up Julia Cote and Carly Morse in third.

The top three finishers in the six divisions were presented with gold trophies by Hoop Shoot chairman Al Savage. The six 2012 area champions will now compete in the New Hampshire State Elks South District Hoop Shoot Championships on Jan. 5, 2013. The contest will again be held in the Elm Street Middle School gym, starting at 9 a.m. Elks, parents, friends and all the Hoop Shoot Champions from the eight competing Elk Lodges of Nashua, Manchester, Concord, Keene, Dover, Portsmouth, Rochester and Derry/Salem will be guests at an Awards Luncheon at the Nashua Lodge of Elks Home immediately after the South District contest.

District winners will advance to the State Finals in Portsmouth the weekend of Feb. 2-3, with those winners advancing to the New England Regional Hoop Shoot in South Portland, Maine, in March. The ElksNational Hoop Shoot Free Throw Finals will take place in Springfield, Massachusetts, in April.