Two local students took on the world over the weekend - and put some arrows right in the middle of it.
Blair Oaks High School's incoming sophomore Kamryn Twehus and 2017 graduate Cole Sandbothe placed in the top 10 in their respective divisions at world-level archery competitions Friday-Saturday in Orlando, Florida.
Twehus placed fifth out of 467 girls in the high school females division of the National Archery in the Schools Program World Tournament, with a score of 292 out of 300.
She was in first place out of 148 ninth-grade girls and eighth among 1,653 girls overall.
Sandbothe placed ninth out of 210 boys in the high school males division of the 3-D NASP World Challenge, also with a score of 292 out of 300.
He placed sixth among 41 12th-grade boys and 11th out of 636 boys overall.
The 2016-17 school year was the first year for Blair Oaks' archery team. Twehus placed at state, nationals and worlds in her first year of high school competition.
"It's kind of unbelievable," she said.
Her goals for next year are "just to keep improving, maintain my technique and work on getting better every day," she said.
Twehus took first place out of 641 girls in her grade and sixth among the 2,150 high school girls competing on the 10/15-meter range in May at nationals in Louisville, Kentucky.
Sandbothe placed fourth of 130 seniors and seventh of 729 high school boys at nationals.
He told the News Tribune in May that he doesn't expect to compete on a team in college, although he might continue with individual competition if he has time.
His answer hadn't changed Wednesday. "That was it for me for school archery," he said of competing in Orlando.
He had been to worlds once before, when he was in grade school and the competition was in St. Louis.
"It was cool to shoot pretty good on my last one," he said.
More than 3,390 student archers in fourth- through 12th-grade from more than 200 schools in two countries
participated in world competitions in Orlando, including 205 Missouri students from nine schools, according to a news release.
Other Blair Oaks High School students also competed in Orlando:
- In the World Tournament with Twehus and Sandbothe: incoming sophomores Holden Kampeter, Savanna Koetting, Bailey Linhardt, Kaitlyn Sandbothe and Tanner Schmidt; and incoming juniors Porter Allmeroth, Jesse Haslag, Taylor Lehmen, Grace Massman, Colton Ready and Jeremy Stockman.
- In the World 3-D Challenge with Sandbothe and Twehus: Allmeroth, Haslag, Koetting, Lehmen, Lindhardt, Massman, Schmidt and Stockman.