Shooters travel to compete nationally

Georgia is on the mind of one Mineral County shooter (and her coaches) ever since shooting a 277 three-position score in the 2010-2011 U.S. Army Junior Open Postal Championship.  Dahkota Hayes shot the postal phase of the National tournament in January along with fifteen other Mineral County junior shooters. 

Not surprisingly, with such an exceptional score, Hayes finished in fifth place overall out of 722 shooters nationwide, for yet another milestone in her shooting career and in the annals of Mineral County shooting sports. 

Since the program’s inception sixteen years ago, no Mineral County shooter or team has attended the US Army National Championships at the Army Marksmanship Unit in Fort Benning, Georgia.  Hayes is on her way, as the highest ranking individual, not a member of a qualifying team, and the first shooter from Mineral County, and possibly Montana, to compete at the National Championship.

The first place shooter, Tyler Rico, from a JROTC program in Arizona shot a 284; followed by a high school shooter from Illinois with a 279, a Texas shooter with 278, and another high school shooter from Alabama with a 277.

The Postal phase of the U.S. Army Open Championship is highly competitive, drawing the interest of Junior ROTC programs, military schools, high school shooting programs, and club programs.  It was a “team” tournament when the National Guard Bureau sponsored it in the 90s and early 2000s. Then, it changed and only the top 10 teams in both sporter and precision air rifle were invited to compete at the National Championship. 

Mineral County’s highest team showing was 22nd place in 2001, when it received its only invitation to attend Nationals, but was unable to do so because all four members were unable to attend. 

In 2005, then Mineral County 4-H shooter, Tempe Regan shot the second highest overall Sporter score with a 281, but did not receive an at-large invitation to the National Championship because at that time, it was still only a team competition.  Fortunately, for small programs and top-ranked individual shooters everywhere, when the US Army assumed sponsorship of the tournament it also changed from a team-only National Championship to at-large invitations to the top ten individuals not members of qualifying teams.   Hence, Hayes is Georgia-bound to represent Montana and Mineral County at one of the most preeminent junior shooting national championships.

As an ‘open’ tournament, any junior shooter may compete. Nine-and-ten-year-old shooters gain valuable shooting experience while seventeen and eighteen-year-olds are generally the top finishers.  Mineral County had great participation from its newest shooters in what was the third postal match of the season for many of them. Shooting from each of the three positions of prone, standing and kneeling were the following Mineral County newcomers. Their 3-P scores, out of a 300 possible were:  Margaret Parkin with a 98; Ryan Cahalin, 102; Maddie Courser, 103; Dani Vander Ploeg, 128; Kenzie Stortz, 131; Kade Parkin, 132; Jonna Warnken, 136; Riley Rust, 139; Kathryn Parkin, 154; and Kaleb Ververis, 160. 

For Mineral County’s more experienced shooters the scores continued to climb. Craig Stortz shot a 169; Nicholas Ververis with a 181; Aidan Patko, 205; Luke Boyce, 210; and Mackenzie Crabb, 255.

Teams result from the four highest scoring individuals in each discipline: sporter or precision.  Mineral County’s Sporter team of Hayes, Crabb, Boyce and Patko finished with a score of 947 for a 50th place finish out of 98 (Sporter) teams; the first place team was from Daleville High School in Alabama had a score of 1090.

Hayes and Crabb also competed as individuals in the precision air rifle portion of the tournament.  Precision shooters are required to shoot four 10-bull targets, all from the standing position.  A total of 286 precision shooters competed in the postal phase and two of them were from Mineral County.  Shooting a Feinwerkbau P70 air rifle (paid for by donations from Ray Welch American Legion Post 13 of St. Regis) Hayes shot a 367 out of a possible 400 and Crabb, shooting a Walther LG 300 XT, shot a 360/400. 

As an indication of how competitive precision shooting is, the top precision shooter finished with a 386/400. Hayes’ score resulted in a 61st place finish while Crabb, who was only seven points behind, finished in 94th place.

Hayes is on her way, hoping to make “history” by competing at the US Army National Championship.  She certainly has what it takes for winning at the National level.  Such an accomplishment is worthy of singing, “that old sweet sound of Georgia on my mind!”

The world-renowned Army International Rifle Team with its many international champions will provide instructional clinics and conduct the National Championship competitions.

Anyone wishing to support Dahkota financially in her national champion aspirations may donate to Mineral County 4-H Shooting Sports National Tournaments travel fund by giving contributions to the Mineral County Extension Office or contribute to any of the upcoming shooting sports fundraisers.