The USA High School Clay Target league held its first ever National Championship Tournament in Mason, Mich., on July 12-15.
Invitations were sent via email to student athletes in tiers according to their season average during the state season. A limit was set to allow 1400 kids to attend the national tournament. There was also a team competition. There are 19 states in the nation with high school trap athletes.
Luke Hennebold and Katie Welker from the Winner/Colome Area Trap team attended the national tournament. Thursday July 12 was registration and a day of practice at the Michigan Trap Association range. On Friday teams from across the country competed to be in the top 80 teams to make it to the finals on Sunday July 15. On Saturday was the individual competition for a spot in the top 400 athletes to shoot in the finals on Sunday. The shooters were assigned random trap ranges and shot on a line with kids from other states. On Saturday Luke shot a 96 out of 100 targets and Katie shot a 95 out of 100 targets. Those scores were good enough to put them into the finals on Sunday. The cut off to be in the finals was a 94 out of 100.
On Sunday Luke shot a 97 out of 100 for a combined score of 193. His final ranking was 133 out of a field of 1400 shooters. Katie shot a 96 on Sunday to give her a combined score of 191. Her final ranking was 198 out of 1400 shooters. Luke and Katie each earned 2 patches for 25 straight targets shot during the tournament. The top 3 shooters in the tournament had perfect 200 targets shot. They went into a shoot off to break the tie between them.
The two local shooters did a fantastic job representing their schools and trap team and felt the tournament was a great experience.
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