Trap team wins first ever state title

The Winner/Colome high school trap team competed at the South Dakota Clay Target league state tournament in Aberdeen on Saturday June 12.

  The Winner/Colome team had 4 junior varsity and 9 varsity shooters competing. There was a total of 340 shooters from 26 teams across the state at the tournament. The Winner/Colome shooters had a fantastic day with all of the kids shooting at or above their season averages.

The Junior varsity shooters were Breven Bolander, Derek Fenenga, Noah Manke, and Oren Sargent. Breven had an 82/100. He had a season average of 18.4 and shot an average of 20.5 at the state tournament. He tied for 22nd place overall in JV shooters.

  Derek shot 78/100, his season average was 17.5 and he improved to a 19.5 and tied for 44th, Noah shot 73/100 his season average was 18.4 and he shot 18.25 in Aberdeen and tied for 72nd place. Oren shot 68/100, his season average was 16.8 and he averaged 17 and tied for 98th place. There were 136 junior varsity shooter at the state tournament.

Varsity shooters were Jack Anderson, Faith Covey, Jesse Larson, Hunter Osborn, Tane Pravecek, Cole Rank, Jude Sargent, Hunter Shippy and Katie Welker. Jack shot 92/100, his season average was 21.7 and was 23 in Aberdeen and he tied for 21st place overall in varsity shooters. Faith had 91/100, season average 20.3 with 22.75 in Aberdeen and tied for 25th place. Jesse shot 88/100, season average 20.7 and improved to 22 and tied for 42nd place. Hunter O had 79/100, season average 20 with a 19.75 in Aberdeen and tied for 76th place. Tane shot 99/100, season average 21.8 and improved his to a 24.75 at the state tournament and tied for 2nd place. The tie was broke by reverse run of target hits which moved him to the 3rd place medal.

  Cole shot 80/100, season average 19.25 with a 20 at state and tied for 74th place. Jude shot 94/100, season average 23.2 with a 23.5 in Aberdeen and he tied for 16th place. Hunter Shippy shot a 94/100, season average 19.9 and had a 23.5 at state and tied for 16th place. Katie shot 98/100, season average 24.7 with a 24.5 in Aberdeen. She was the 1st place varsity female. There were 97 varsity shooters at the state tournament.

At the tournament you shoot your first 50 targets then you have to wait until all the other teams sharing you trap house have shot their 1st 50 and then you shoot your 2nd 50. So you have a wait time of anywhere for 2 to 2 1/2 hours between rounds. A lot can change in those 2 hours, temperature, wind and mental exhaustion to name a few things. A team consists of 5 shooters. We didn’t have enough junior varsity shooters to have a team. The team is comprised of your top 5 scores in each division. The top 5 varsity members for Winner/Colome were Jack Anderson, Tane Pravecek, Jude Sargent, Hunter Shippy and Katie Welker. These kids ended up being the top team in the state. They shot a combined score of 477/500. They had the top score overall between the 1A and the 2A schools, which shot trap on Sunday in Aberdeen. Shooting is a mental sport where you really have to keep you mind sharp and clear and concentrate on one target at a time. Our kids did a tremendous job of that coming from 3rd place after the first 50 targets to flipping to 1st place after 100.

Shooting 50 straight at the tournament were Tane Pravecek and Katie Welker. Shooting 25 straight were Jack Anderson and Hunter Shippy got his 1st ever which was very cool to see! If you are gonna do your best state is a great place to do it!

We as coaches cant say enough good things about these kids. They have worked hard and went to Aberdeen and brought their A game, ready to compete and ready to bring home our first ever state tournament team championship. Tane is our only senior on the team and it was great to see him close out his high school career as the first male from our team to bring home a state medal. We would also like to thank those who have donated to our team to help defray the costs for the kids. We appreciate your support of this great team!