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Compound Interest: High-tech compound bows are preferred by many of the 30-some students who show up for Archery Club practice at Hamel Recreation Center twice a week. Beginners usually start with a 35-pound bow, but Bridget O'Donnell '09, front, is a bowhunter who shoots with 42 pounds of draw weight. Compound bows take less strength to hold at full draw than the long bows or recurves that most of us recall from our days at camp. Regardless of the bow, archery is a demanding sport, says coach Mark Olson. "Eighty percent of it is mental," he says, which can be extremely draining. On the drive home from competitions, he says, "We're two minutes down the road, and they're all asleep." Behind O'Donnell are, left to right, Samantha Smith '11, Emily Bastian '08, Brad Kiehl '08 and Aaron Longchamps '10.