The balancing act for Kyle Axt is a rigorous one.

Between a full day of school, music, college applications and air riflery, where he happens to be this year’s ILH champion, the Punahou senior doesn’t have much time for anything else.

He wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I like to only do things that I enjoy doing,” Axt said. “If I don’t enjoy doing it, then I wouldn’t really do it.”

Like most of his teammates, Axt didn’t start competing in air riflery until his freshman year.

After not placing in the 2013 and 2014 state tournaments, he finished 16th out of 60 shooters at last year’s HHSAA Hawaii State Sporter Championship. With an individual ILH title under his belt, he hopes to continue to climb the ranks.

“I’m not trying to stress about it,” Axt said. “If you stress out, you’ll do worse. The goal is to just stay relaxed.”

In terms of discipline, the sport of air riflery is as demanding as it gets. Shooters are required to shoot from three positions as they aim for their targets: standing, kneeling and prone (when one lies flat down with the chest down).

Shooters must relax themselves and make sure they’re well rested. That’s when it gets a little complicated for Axt.

“Sometimes it’s hard to manage in a way because if I have band the night before, that usually ends pretty late and I’ll have riflery in the morning, so I might have to leave early sometimes,” Axt said.

At times, Axt won’t get home until after midnight.

“I’ll try to sleep seven or eight hours. Try to,” he said.

In addition to air riflery, he plays the clarinet in the marching band and piano for the jazz band. He’s also on the school’s robotics team.

“Obviously we like to have people like him that are dedicated. Someone that will come to practice and listen to our advice,” Punahou coach Karen Finley said. “Kyle’s been an excellent example of that. … He works really hard and it shows in his scores.

“It works that we have a sport that almost anybody can do regardless of their physical size and abilities. Mostly here it takes the will power and the desire to do well and work for it.”

As a senior, Axt is also working on all-important college applications to schools on the West Coast. But his top choice is Marquette, where he has family living in Wisconsin. He intends to study biochemistry and go into pharmacy and medicine.

“I didn’t realize how many things he was doing until he told me his schedule,” Finley said. “We don’t know how many things that we’re doing outside of when they’re not here. We just try to make sure they use decent time management.”

As jam-packed as Axt’s schedule is, he maintains that he’ll always make time for things he genuinely wants to pursue.

“You just have to enjoy what you do. If you don’t enjoy what you do, then you won’t have the motivation to keep going through all of it,” Axt said. “Obviously if you didn’t enjoy something that you spend a lot of your time doing, you probably wouldn’t do it or you probably wouldn’t try really hard.”

Like most seniors in high school, Axt is relishing his final days before everything changes. And like most people with a full plate, he probably won’t acknowledge it until all his work is done.

“I guess when you’re on the inside and not on the outside you don’t really have anything else to compare it to,” he said. “I don’t see it as being too hard, I guess. I just see it as normal.”