For Lauria, the bullseye is always the target

Columbia Falls High School senior Miranda Lauria doesn’t miss the mark.

Lauria, 18, competes in 4-H shooting sports, and her archery team took third place in national competition last year. Lauria has also competed and placed well at the Las Vegas shoot, the largest indoor competition in the world.

Lauria was born in Arizona and raised in Columbia Falls. Her dad cultivated her interest in archery when she was little, and she never looked back.

She likes archery because “anyone can do it.”

At competitions, she sees young people and older people alike, she said.

“Everyone is so different. You can do it as a side hobby and be pretty good at it, or you can dedicate your whole life to it,” she noted.

Lauria also raises pigs for 4-H, and used to do motocross before she became so involved with shooting.

She enjoys community service with the Key Club, and shines academically as well.

“I’m in all AP classes,” she said. “I’ve always strived for academic success, but sports are very important to me. I think it’s important to have a balance.”

She graduates June 3, and next fall she’ll attend the University of the Cumberlands in Williamsburg, Kentucky, where she’ll be on the varsity archery team. She wants to major in exercise and sports science and join the pre-physical therapy track, in hopes of eventually designing prosthetics.

And she plans to keep letting the arrows fly.

“Since I was 5 years old, I said I’d be on the Olympic team someday,” she said.