Junior shooters look forward to tourneys
Mineral County’s junior shooters have entered the New Year at a fast pace with four tournaments in January and more ahead in February. Even with all the competitions, they’ve also been maintaining their edge with practices in between.
With the month nearly over, all 19 4-H shooters have competed in one or more of the following tournaments: the US Army Junior Open Air Rifle Championship, the Montana State Shooting Sports Postal Tournament, the American Legion Junior Air Rifle National Tournament (preliminary round) and the Lewis and Clark County 4-H Shooting Sports Invitational, a shoulder match in Helena.
For the first time in 17 years, the program has shooters competing in all four age divisions. The local juniors include newcomers Ryan Cahalin, Margaret, Kathryn and Kade Parkin, McKenzie Stortz, Madison Courser, Jonna Warnken, Dani VanderPloeg, and Riley Rust. They join returning shooter Kaleb Ververis in the nine to ten year old age division and veteran shooters MaryGrace Donally, Nicholas Ververis, Celein Parkin and Aidan Patko in the 11-12 year old age group. Craig Stortz and Luke Boyce are shooting in the 13-14 year old class while David McGuffey (pistol), Mackenzie Crabb and Dahkota Hayes shoot in the 15 year old and older division.
Earlier this month, the results from the first tournament back in early December, the 2010 Blueridge Postal Match hosted by R-S Central High School MCJROTC in Rutherfordton, NC, were received.
One hundred and ninety nine teams with a total of 769 shooters competed in that match. Most teams were from military/high schools with junior reserve officer training (JROTC) programs. Only five club programs entered the match and Mineral County was one of them.
Mineral County shooters participated in all categories: precision air rifle, sporter veteran air rifle and sporter boot (new shooters who had never participated before) air rifle. Receiving medals in the Blueridge Postal were Mackenzie Crabb for finishing in the top 10 percent of all shooters. His top finish will earn him Excellence in Competition (EIC) points maintained by the Civilian Marksmanship Program. Recognition was also given to those individuals who had the highest three-position (3P) scores on their respective teams. Mineral County shooters receiving these medals included Mackenzie Crabb, with a 3P score of 263, Nicholas Ververis (3P score-145), Kathryn Parkin (3P-117) and Jonna Warnken (3P 99).
The shooters are awaiting the results of the National Rifle Association’s 4-H 3P Sporter Air Rifle Postal in which 17 Mineral County shooters also shot at in December. The club also had 16 shooters compete in the US Army Jr. Open back at the beginning of January. Dahkota Hayes’ 3P score of 278 (sporter) in the US Army Open appears to be high enough to be in the top five overall and qualify for an at-large invitation to compete in the National Championship at the Army Marksmanship Unit in Fort Benning, Georgia.
In other competitions, one final shooter remains to fire their six targets for the 2011 American Legion Jr. AR Championship. Those targets will be mailed to national headquarters in Indianapolis, IN, for electronic scoring by the end of the month.
Leaders eagerly await the first round results to see if Mackenzie Crabb and Dahkota Hayes’ scores are in the top thirty nationally, which would qualify them for the second round of shooting (qualification round) and one step closer to the national championship at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, CO.
It’s been five years since Mineral County sent a shooter to the American Legion National Championship. It was Tempe Regan who competed and won the prestigious event as the only shooter from Montana to do so in its 21 year history. Shooting sports leader Deb Regan believes that both Dahkota and Mackenzie are capable of shooting scores high enough to get them there.
Finally, shooters also traveled to Helena for the Lewis and Clark County 4-H Invitational. The official results of that competition will be reported when received from match officials. On the horizon are the Flathead Invitational in Kalispell and the NRA Sectional in Bozeman during February. Mineral County will be well-represented at both of these upcoming events, as it has been in all the matches thus far.