VIENNA — Several local student archers are headed to the state tournament after strong performances in a recent competition, where they reflected on their results, their path into the sport, and what qualifying means to them.

During an interview conducted by former Maries County Advocate reporter Alin Hett, archers Gage Curtis, Evan Simmons and David Martin III discussed their performances and their excitement about advancing to the state level.

Curtis said he was not entirely satisfied with his final round but still recognized the accomplishment of qualifying.

“I didn’t do the best my last round,” Curtis said. “I kept flinching due to the tiredness from shooting the first five, actually first seven, and I messed up on my last shot, so I don’t feel like I did the best.”

Despite the challenges during the event, Curtis said qualifying for state has become familiar territory.

“This would be my third year qualified. I’ve qualified all three years,” Curtis said. “I qualified pretty early. It wasn’t in our second or third term, but I shot my first 292. I qualified pretty early, which felt really good to get that off so that way I could just work throughout the rest of the season. I tried to get my average up.”

Simmons also qualified for the state tournament and said he felt he could have performed better during the competition.

“I feel like I could have done probably better,” Simmons said. “Had one real bad round at 15 that really cost me a better score.”

Simmons said qualifying was meaningful after dealing with challenges the previous season.

“Well, I guess I’m just glad I qualified this year,” Simmons said. “I didn’t do great last year because I couldn’t shoot very well because of my knee. I’m just glad I qualified this year.”

For Martin, qualifying for the state tournament marks another step in a growing archery career.

“This is actually my third year shooting,” Martin said. “I didn’t go my first year, but I have better confidence.”

The archers also talked about what drew them to the sport in the first place.

Curtis said his interest in archery started with the outdoors.

“I was always big into the outdoors. I was really big in bow hunting,” Curtis said. “I never was really getting any other sports. I have a lazy eye, which really helps me lose my ability for distance, depth perception, and I guess archery.”

Simmons said his introduction to archery came earlier in life, though it started with a memorable mishap.

“I got into archery because I wanted to shoot stuff,” Simmons said, then recalling that the first bow he ever used resulted in a broken window when he shot an arrow straight up to see how high it would go.

7th grader David Martin III, also qualified for state. Martin credited early opportunities to shoot through school programs.

“We had an advantage,” Martin said. “We were offered this type of archery in the Catholic school in our younger years. It was offered in fourth grade and up.”

The State Tournament will be held in Branson on March 18 and will feature several students from the district who earned qualification. At the high school level, qualifiers include juniors Gage Curtis and Evan Simmons, along with sophomore Ethan Kloeppel. Middle school students advancing to the state competition are seventh graders David Martin III and Zane Wagner, and eighth graders Katie Kloeppel and Claire Neier.

Curtis and Simmons qualified in Tier 1, the highest level of competition.