Off the Field: Republic Senior Wins State Archery Title

Republic senior Violetta Fahreev walked over to the trophy table before the MoNASP State Archery Championship began in Branson and turned to a friend.

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“These are so pretty,” she said. “It’s so sad that I won’t ever get one.”

Turns out she was wrong.

A few days later, when final scores were posted, Fahreev was the top female archer in the state, out of more than 3,800 competitors from 304 schools. She shot a 293 out of a possible 300 at the state bullseye tournament March 18-21 at the Branson Convention Center. The score made her the overall high female archer and the high school female champion at the Missouri National Archery in the Schools Program (MoNASP) State Archery Championship.

Fahreev said her first thought on seeing the result was, “This is insane.”

Republic High School recognized Fahreev during a Thursday ceremony. She received two trophies, multiple medals, certificates, a Mathews Genesis bow from the Missouri Department of Conservation and the Missouri Conservation Heritage Foundation, and a $2,500 scholarship for being the highest-scoring female archer at the state tournament. The scholarship, funded through MCHF, can be applied toward her college education.

That education will take place at Lyon College in Batesville, Arkansas, where Fahreev plans to shoot on the collegiate archery team.

Fahreev has been shooting for three years — all of them at Republic. She moved to the area from Minnesota, where her previous school didn’t have an archery program.

“Whenever I got here, they said they have an archery program,” Fahreev said. “I got really excited because I knew that was something I was passionate about and wanted to actually do.”

This was her third consecutive trip to the state tournament. Even with that experience, she was nervous as the competition began — and a bad break early in the tournament didn’t help.

“While shooting, one of my arrows deflected, and I was like, ‘Oh man, I’m definitely not gonna place first now,'” she said.

Fahreev credited her mindset as much as her mechanics.

“I honestly think it’s a very big mindset thing,” she said. “If you’re always negative and look down on things, you’re not going to reach your goal. You just need to keep pushing. Even if something bad does happen, be like, ‘Oh, I can make it up. There’s time.'”

Fahreev doesn’t plan to lay down the bow anytime soon.

“I love it so much,” she said. “It’s one of my biggest passions.”