4-H shooters fare well at Junior Olympics

The Mineral County 4-H Shooting Sports

team recently came back last week from a competitive national air

rifle shooting competition in Camp Perry, Ohio.

Mackenzie “Spud” Crabb, Dahkota Hayes,

Aidan Patko and Luck Boyce made up the shooting sports team that

recently represented Montana at the 2011National Junior Olympic

3-Position Air Rifle Championship June 29 through July 1.

After Crabb and Hayes lead a Montana

shooting team to a championship at the NRA national competition

June 25, them and the rest of the 4-H squad finished the Junior

Olympics in 11th place.

Fellow Montana team, Gallatin Valley

Sharpshooters finished seventh place overall.

The Patriot 4-H Shooting Club & Am

Legion Post 223 from Virginia won the championship and took home a

trophy plaque with a total score of 4,331 points out of 4800

points.

Mineral County had a total team score

of 4119 points. The points are collected from each shooter

competing twice in a prone, standing and kneeling position. Each

round is worth 1,200 points multiplied by the four team members to

make the possible team score 4,800.

Individually, Crabb had the highest

team score and finished 21st overall with a score of 1086 points

out of 1200 points. Crabb shot 33 bulls eyes in that high scoring

round.

Nine other shooters who scored higher

than Crabb competed from South Africa and shot as visitors to the

championship because their rifles did not meet the competitions

standards. As a result, those visiting shooters’ scored did not

count in the standings, which meant Crabb actually finished in 12th

place.

Behind Crabb, Dahkota Hayes finished

23rd overall, or 14th place. Hayes shot a score of 1083 points and

had 38 bulls eyes in that round.

Boyce finished 168th overall, or 153rd

place. Boyce shot 11 bulls eyes and earned a score of 956 points.

Patko finished 175th overall, or 160th place. Patko had 14 bulls

eyes in his round.

Maneva Gill or Pacifica 4-H in

California won the individual championship and shot 52 bulls

eyes.

The Junior Olympics was the first

national competition Patko competed in as a 4-H Shooting Sports

member. Boyce made his second appearance on the national stage and

Crabb made is fourth appearance. Hayes, who graduated from Superior

High School this spring, has one more shooting competition later

this summer.

Hayes will travel to Colorado Springs

in August to shoot in the American Legion National Junior Air Rifle

Championship.

The only other Montana shooting

sporter team, Gallatin Valley, had four shooters compete as well as

Mineral County. Trey Holliday of Gallatin Valley shot a 1057 points

and finished 59th overall or 47th place individually. Ticer Nelson

shot 1041 points and finished 82nd overall or 69th place. Maranda

Nelson shot 1016 points and finished 121st overall or 116 place.

Lastly, Tana Dincau shot 1005 points and finished 140th overall or

125th place.