The archery team has been meeting at @centraltexasarchery on Sundays so it can prepare for the state competition safely outdoors while wearing masks and practicing social distancing. Shooting outdoors adds the extra challenge of the wind, which makes freshman Sophie Leung-Lieu’s perfect 50 (all five arrows in the bull’s eye) this past Sunday all the more remarkable.

After a practice round, the archers set up to score their arrows for the first time all season. And from 10 meters, despite the wind, Sophie found the bull’s eye with all five arrows.

“Getting a 50 is a big goal for a lot of archers, and it’s a great accomplishment every time you get a perfect score,” Sophie told MacJournalism today. “I’ve done it a couple times, and it feels really good, but I think it’s important that you don’t let your perfect score throw you off the next round. … During pre-COVID times, when at tournaments usually you are able to snap a photo and celebrate a little, but staying consistent should also be a priority because you are still competing.”

And how did Sophie react to the perfect 50 on Sunday?

“I was really happy, and surprised because shooting outside has been kind of difficult. The wind is blowing, and it’s hard to keep balanced and still so your shot is dependent on many factors, and some you have no control over.”

A complete perfect score in archery is 300. To achieve that, an archer would have to shoot 15 arrows from 10 meters and another 15 from 15 meters and never miss the bull’s eye.

“It’s very hard to shoot a 50 at 15,” Sophie explained. “[Plus] the wind was a big struggle for me and a lot of the archers. I did decently for the next 10-meter rounds, but 15 meters was brutal because of the wind. It is more difficult to shoot at a farther distance already, and we were all tired at that point as well.”

Sophie said the last time she scored a 50 was at a tournament at McCallum a little less than a year ago when she was an eighth-grade archer at Lamar. She’s been an archer since elementary school.

Sophie expressed gratitude to her coach Jim DeLine and team captain Mariana Torres DeLine for making it possible for the team to practice.

“Without them, me and about 20 other students wouldn’t be able to get together every Sunday to practice.”

The team plans to have a tournament against themselves outdoors next weekend at Central Texas Archery.