Platte County junior archer Wren Wilkins has been a part of the archery program since its first year in 2016 and has recently broken her own program record, again, with 295 out of 300.
Wilkins was in the fourth grade the first year Platte County had an archery team and has been the face of the franchise in the seven years since then. She had an interesting beginning to the sport that she ended up thriving in.
Platte County junior Wren Wilkins has continuously broke the Pirate archery scoring record, most recently with a score of 295 out of 300.
“When I was in the fourth grade, I got this certificate from my gym teacher that said you’ve been selected to be on the archery team and I was super stoked,” Wren Wilkins said. “I was on the founding archery team, which is sort of cool and I’ve stuck with it since then.”
The junior has continuously broken the program record in total points, with the most recent record being 293 set last season. Before that, her high score was 286.
“I’ve had the school record since my freshman year, so I’ve been like challenging myself and just beating myself over and over. It’s super cool to keep doing that over and over,” Wilkins said.
The ambition to make history at Platte County goes way back for the archer. Platte County archery coach Dana Stephenson tells the Platte County Citizen how long Wilkins has been thriving for the record.
“Her goal is 300; she set that when she was a little fourth grader, so she has just perfected it. I haven’t done anything to her, it’s her practicing on the weekends and at oue practicse instead of just one hour, she does two hours, twice a week. It’s her doing what she wants, she pushes herself,” Stephenson said.
Even back when she began in 2016, Wilkins showed her talent. She shot a season-best 232 when she was in the fourth grade and has continued to improve since then.
“I went to a tournament down south this year and that was nice to have more competition because in the Northland there’s not too much competition. We have national averages, and you can see who else is shooting online where there’s a database that you can see. I can see where I rank, so it’s more motivating. At state and nationals, if you place you get scholarships, and I’m also super academically focused, so scholarships are a great motivator,” Wilkins said.
This past weekend was the final regular season competition for Platte County – taking place in Branson – with state coming up soon. The Pirates have tryouts in October then start practicing the first week of November, and Wilkins is always willing to help out teammates.
“She totally does (push others) and volunteers at the middle school to help them out. On our own team, she’s over helping everybody else. Her determination to do well is her greatest attribute, her form is perfect,” Stephenson said.
For state, Platte County takes its top-24 players and ranks them by their top-5 tournaments that they had throughout the season. Anna Bundy is the second-best Pirate, with a season-high 292 score – as Wilkins has qualified for state every year since starting and has been projected to win it all this season, yet is already thinking about the future after high school.
“I’m looking collegiately; there’s not a lot of programs. A lot of the Ivy League schools have collegiate archery programs, which would be super cool so I’m looking at Stanford right now. Then also some Texas programs; Texas A&M, TCU and a lot of bigger southern schools have archery, so that’d be cool,” Wilkins said.
The Platte County junior has been a huge part over the years for her school. She has also competed with other teams to help increase her chances of continuing her archery career.
“We really only do it for school stuff, but I started shooting and other competitions outdoors with bigger bows and compound bows. Then there’s like Olympic teams and Junior Olympic teams that I’m looking at and shooting collegiately which is through like the Olympic program too,” Wilkins said.