MILWAUKEE — Armed with a bow and arrow, Lilie Aguilar isn't your average 16-year-old.
"I shoot compound female-cadet. The bow itself is actually, pretty light to me, and then once I add on all my weights it can get a little heavy," says Lilie, a member of BKIII Wind Lake archery making waves across the state of Wisconsin and the nation.
In fact, she's not even your average archer.
"When I first started, I just wanted to be at the top. Then as I started shooting and I was like, I know I'm pretty good at it, but I think I can do better," says Lilie.
Aiming to be the best, Lilie recently tried out for Team USA in the field discipline.
"We're up on like crazy hills. We're shooting uphill and downhill. We actually have to use our equipment to find our distances and it's all by yourself," says Lilie.
Lilie also took her shot in the target discipline.
"We have 10,9,8,7 and 6 for compound so our targets are a little smaller than recurve. That is just at one set distance," says Lilie.
Falling one point shy of making the target squad, Lilie is currently preparing to compete as a member of the USA's Field Team.
"My next big thing is World's in South Dakota, back again. I'm super excited for that one. I just know that I need to do what I did before and work hard. I've been practicing a lot for that so I'm excited," says Lilie.
If you're wondering when we could see Lilie in the Olympics, well, a few things need to happen first.
"Currently compound is not in the Olympics, just recurve, but we are trying to get it into the 2028 LA Olympics. So if that's there I hope I can make it to that and represent the USA for that," says Lilie.
That said, should Lilie have to pick up a different bow to go for gold, she's up for the challenge.
"For me, it would be a lot different, because you are holding back all your weight. There are different sites and it's a bigger bow, but I think it would be fun to learn," says Lilie.
After all, Lilie just got into field competitions a little over a year ago, and she's already earned her stars and stripes.
