Silas O’Dell had to fight the elements when he won an archery competition July 16 at the Ray County Fair in Richmond, despite being partially sheltered from them. O’Dell, who attends Excelsior Springs High School and is president of the Millville 4-H Club, and his fellow archers competed in a ramada-style building. Shooting in a structure with a roof but not four walls meant they were exposed to the hot, muggy morning air. “It’s hot, so the bow’s hard to hold because it’s all sweaty and wet,” O’Dell said. “It’s just harder (to shoot).” O’Dell, however, handled the heat and humidity well enough to claim the senior-compound-with-release division title, scoring a 284 – 32 points ahead of the runner-up, Trent Logsdon. The victory was part of an archery journey that began in 2017. “(I) thought it would be fun and I started shooting and haven’t stopped since,” he said. O’Dell, an ambassador i...